Curtis Vandale performs a back flip during Sima Slamfest at Mount Sima on Aug. 13. Fifteen mountain bikers took part in the downhill racing event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)

Near-record time set at Sima Slamfest

Massey Baker wins twice at downhill mountain bike event

Turns out plate No. 1 was fitting for Massey Baker to have on his bike.

The 24-year-old placed first in both open men races at Sima Slamfest, held at the Mount Sima mountain resort on Aug. 13.

Baker nearly broke a long-standing record in the process in the main downhill race “Lefty Loosey.” He completed the roughly two-kilometre trail with 335 metres of vertical drop in a time of three minutes, 54.10 seconds.

Baker is just the third rider to break the four-minute mark on the course. He won the event last year as well, but with a time 20 seconds slower.

This past weekend was the eighth edition of the more-or-less annual event since 2008. The mountain bike festival wasn’t held in 2011 because of the construction of a chairlift. In 2012 the AFD Gravity Cup Downhill Mountain Bike Race — which spurred the construction of Lefty Loosey — was held instead of Slamfest.

Two-time Slamfest champ Ben Kinvig, who placed third on Lefty Loosey this year, finished the course two years ago with a time of 3:55. Calgary’s Cody Ratte did it in 3:53 — the course record — at the Gravity Cup in 2012.

Baker also placed first in the “Drop the Clutch” competition, held on a roughly three-kilometre course of a machine built flow trail, this year.

“Our numbers were down from last year and I think that may have been due to the fact that a lot of people were out of town,” said organizer Josh de la Salle. “I think next year, if we do it again, we’ll try to do it on a Wednesday night because Wednesday nights seem to be attracting more people. Wednesday nights we’ve been breaking 150, 160 participants — people at the hill. So we’ve been getting more people out during the week than on the weekend.”

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com

Lefty Loosey

Open men

1st Massey Baker — 3:54.10

2nd Phil Beausejour — 4:03.46

3rd Ben Kinvig — 4:05.96

4th Josh de la Salle — 4:07.20

5th Julien Revel — 4:08.18

6th Sam Reimer — 4:12.95

7th Liam Mather — 4:13.96

8th Tyler Tukendorf — 4:23.88

9th Curtis Vandale — 4:54.57

10th Nigel Sinclair-Eckert — 5:31.13

11th Francis Belanger — 5:56.41

Open women

1st Ziggy Reimer — 5:58.83

2nd Egle Barnes — 6:04.65

3rd Jaylene Goorts — 6:04.98

4th Rebecca Mann — 8:51.73

Drop the Clutch

Open men

1st Massey Baker — 7:26.56

2nd Tyler Tukendorf — 7:30.41

3rd Sam Reimer — 7:31.95

4th Curtis Vandale — 7:35.46

5th Phil Beausejour — 7:39.53

6th Liam Mather — 7:49.38

7th Nigel Sinclair-Eckert — 7:59.37

8th Francis Belanger — 8:31.10

9th Ryan Soucy — 10:39.55

Open women

1st Jaylene Goorts — 8:27.81

2nd Meagan Wilson — 8:28.94

3rd Ziggy Reimer — 9:02.81

4th Egle Barnes — 9:06.57

5th Rebecca Mann — 9:39.19

Youth

1st Sapphira Oettli — 17:18.11

Mountain biking

 

Tom Patrick/Yukon News Curtis Vandale performs a back flip during Sima Slamfest at Mount Sima on Aug. 13. Fifteen mountain bikers took part in the downhill racing event.

Whitehorse’s Massey Baker roars to the finish in the Drop the Clutch event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)

Whitehorse’s Massey Baker roars to the finish in the Drop the Clutch event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)