The Last Gasp Time Trial was held Sunday the 2nd of September.
Starting at Jake’s Corner, the course travelled due north 40 kilometres on the Alaska Highway to just past the McClintock River Bridge.
Ordinarily there are fairly strong winds from the south pushing the riders along and on a course that does have a net elevation loss of about 30 metres, fast times can be the order of the day.
Hoping for the best of both worlds — a tailwind and a downhill course, 10 riders took in this last event on VeloNorth’s 2007 cycling schedule.
The Last Gasp also finalized the results in the season-long points competition.
Several division winners would be determined based on the results of this race. By race time at 11 a.m. the temperatures had warmed to a balmy six degrees Celsius and the wind was non-existent.
Despite the disappointing wind conditions some excellent performances were recorded.
Trina Irving won the expert women’s category in a time of 71 min 29 seconds. This result earned her 20 points and she vaulted to second on the overall expert women’s points list, just three points behind champion Allison Furniss.
John Berryman in the sport men class was holding an 11-point lead going into Sunday’s time trial.
Berryman won his category in a time of 59 minutes, 47 seconds and in the process ended up with 102 points for the season, 30 points ahead of second place Darren Holcombe.
Berryman’s point total was the highest in any category.
Shannon Meakins held an insurmountable lead going into this last race, and by virtue of her second place ride ended the season with 44 points and a nice trophy for the mantle. Tiffany Duncan won the novice women’s category in her first race of the season and posted the fastest time of all women riders.
Results — Last Gasp Time Trial (40 kilometres)
Expert men
1st Mike McCann, 55:15
2nd Jesse Reams, 57:14
3rd Derrick Hynes, 58:02
4th Bill Parry, 62:33
Expert women
1st Trina Irving, 71:29
Sport men
1st John Berryman, 59:47
2nd Tim Arnholtz, 63:53
3rd Bill Curtis, 67:56
Novice women
1st Tiffany Duncan, 70:14
2nd Shannon Meakins,
79:39
VeloNorth 2007 Points Series champions
The Last Gasp Time Trial marked the end to VeloNorth’s most successful season ever. A total of 82 cyclists took part in 26 events organized by VeloNorth starting April 25 and ending on September 2.
Champions by class:
Expert men
1st Mike McCann,
69 points
2nd Jesse Reams, 52 points
3rd Jonah Clark, 49 points
4th Ian Parker, 46 points
5th Glen Iceton, 46 points
Expert women
1st Allison Furniss,
60 points
2nd Trina Irving,
57 points
3rd Duchane Richard,
45 points
4th Katherine Sandiford,
27 points
5th Nicole Ruest,
16 points
Sport men
1st John Berryman,
102 points
2nd Darren Holcombe,
71 points
3rd Bob Bowerman,
54 points
4th Sean McCarron,
47 points
5th Dan Reimer,
31 points
Sport women
1st Kelsey Kabanak,
72 points
2nd Kaitlyn MacDonald,
39 points
3rd Corrine Tetreault,
27 points
4th Joanne Weninger,
24 points
5th Keltie Hollingdale,
22 points
Novice men
1st Ted Dean, 30 points
2nd Jody Woodland,
10 points
Novice women
1st Shannon Meakins,
44 points
2nd Tiffany Duncan,
20 points