Whitehorse cyclist Mike McCann is a year older, and a few seconds faster.
McCann raced his way to winning the 60-64 age group at the Grand Forks Masters Weekend, part of the BC Masters series, in Grand Forks, BC, last weekend.
The VeloNorth rider defended his title from last year with slightly faster times.
For the title, McCann won two-out-of-three races beginning with a 4.4-kilometre hill climb on Friday.
With little time to spare, McCann won his division by just one second and finished eighth overall.
McCann crossed the finish line three seconds faster than last year.
“The first 2.2 kilometres are relatively flat and the next 2.2 is the real hill, with the first part at an 11 per cent grade and the last bit at six per cent,” wrote McCann in an email to the News.
A 40-kilometre individual time trial was two wins in one for McCann on Saturday.
Not only did McCann finish first in his division and third overall, just three minutes behind the winner, he captured the age-standard prize.
Using a system developed by the British, which formulates the expected time a rider should take to complete a race based on age and distance, McCann exceeded the standard by 20 minutes, more than any other rider.
Finishing in 57:24, McCann was a minute faster than his time from last year.
However, not everything worked out so well for McCann. In the weekend’s final event, an 80-kilometre road race, McCann bent his saddle downwards on a pothole and was forced to ride out the race with it out of position.
“I stopped and tried to fix it but to no avail,” wrote McCann. “I ended up riding the rest of the race by myself and finished about 24 minutes back of the overall winners and about 17 minutes back of the winner of my age group.”
No stranger to winning races, the 64-year-old has produced terrific results at the last two Huntsman World Senior Games in Saint George, Utah.
In 2009, McCann was the overall cycling champion in the 60-64 age division with two golds and a bronze. Last year he won two silver medals, withdrawing from the final race with a broken derailleur.
In last year’s Tour de Juneau, competing against cyclists half his age, McCann came away with top-10 results in all his races, finishing fifth overall in the expert men division.
He is currently in Salmon Arm, BC, for two more BC Masters races this weekend, competing in a 40-kilometre time trial Sunday and a 64-kilometre road race on Monday.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com