Provincial mountain bike races held in Greater Sudbury

On Sunday, the Walden Mountain Bike Club hosted provincial mountain bike races in the Greater Sudbury community of Naughton.

The club and Ontario Cycling worked together to bring the Ontario Cup Series event to northern Ontario.

Officials with the organizations said the unique landscape of the area presented a challenging course.

Brody Larochelle, 10, rode 8.2 kilometres representing the Walden Mountain Bike Club team Wolfpak racing. He finished 6th in the under 11 division.

"I started biking when I was about three or four,” said Larochelle.

“I like racing because it's competitive, fast. I just like it."

Sudbury's Stacey Greene took home a bronze medal in the Sport Women's class riding almost 15 km in just under an hour.

"Just started racing in 2019 and I just like racing because it gives you something to train for and push yourself and it's loads of fun," said Greene.

It's the first time the Walden Mountain Bike Club has hosted a race on the Ontario Cup Series race since 2013.

"The Ontario Cup series is kinda the feeder program for team Ontario and those people hopefully go up to the national program,” said Rob St. Marseille, the chief of the course and a member of the Walden Mountain Bike Club,

“So this is where the future Olympians start. Like we have had our Olympians Emily Batty and Pete Disera and them all raced this series. And I actually remember them when they were racing as kids. So we have some our future superstars here today."

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More than 170 competitors took part in the 8 to 35 km races – with participants ranged from eight to 80 years young.

"This is a great venue for the diversity of trails especially being up here parts of the Canadian Shield that are unique that are local to here that we don't have at all the different venues that we go to throughout the year,” said Darren De Ruiter, a competition and events organizer with Ontario Cycling.

“So it's a really unique spot and we have really happy to be here."

Ontario Cycling said the next competition for these mountain bike racers is provincial the championships in Milton, Ont. at the end of August.