For the first time, riders crossing the border during Leg 7 of the Kluane-Chilkat International Bike Relay will have to stop and show two pieces of ID before continuing along the Haines Road on Saturday.
US Customs notified race organizers of the changes last Friday. These changes were put into place after the terrorist arrests in Ontario last week.
“Each rider has to have a face-to-face with border protection,” said Judy Ewald, the Haines representative on the Relay board of directors. The riders’ checkpoint will be set up eight kilometres past the highway customs crossing, to ease congestion in that area.
“If a rider doesn’t have the proper ID, they will be sent back to the border for clearance.”
That’s a lot of backtracking, so make sure you have it.
“People are concerned about their times, and were asking the riders for their patience,” said Ewald.
“I’m a rider, too, and my race time is important to me — were doing the best we can.”
Ewald said that this is probably a one-year deal, but that things won’t go back to the way they were. Border restrictions are the new reality.
Ewald, a retired customs officer, also reminds everyone crossing the border not to bring any meat, dog food and fruit, except bananas, into the USA.
Sessford’s Circuit
Yukon mountain bike racer Daniel Sessford continues to plug away on the Canada Cup circuit, with the third stop at Hardwood Hills, Ontario, on June 4th.
The circuit moves west starting at Whistler and finishing at Mount Washington on the last weekend of July.
“Hardwood Hills was both good and bad for me,” said Sessford. “I finished 49th and my overall ranking on the circuit dropped to 23rd.
“But there were some good parts to the race! One being that, for the first time in a senior elite race, I have been able to go to the front and not be thinking that the speed was insanely fast!
“Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hold the speed, but that will come. I also crashed pretty hard part way through and I wasn’t able to focus 100 per cent in the technical after.”
Last Sunday, Sessford competed in a Quebec Cup race north of Quebec City, which he described as “fun and super muddy!”
“There was ankle deep mud all the way around and the climbs for the most part were unrideable but it was a good experience,” he said.
“After the first lap I was third position, but I started to fade. Probably because each lap involved running uphill for about 15 minutes and I just didn’t have the leg speed to run fast.”
He finished in ninth position.
Sessford’s next race is the World Cup at Mont Saint Anne on the June 25th.
Whitehorse
Adventure Run
It was great day in the sun for the Whitehorse Adventure Run on Sunday.
Despite the early start and the heat, all participants successfully completed the competitive Whitehorse Adventure team event and the individual, recreational People Enjoying Adventurous Competitive Exercise event.
Both events started and finished in Rotary Peace Park. Hosted by the Yukon Orienteering Association, the 20-kilometre and 10-kilometre events required participants to run through nine different checkpoints, electronically registering at each point.
The courses were unknown to participants until 30 minutes before the start, when they were allowed to look at their “top secret” maps.
Participants in the People Enjoying Adventurous Competitive Exercise event had the option of taking a 30-minute time penalty and skipping four of the checkpoints.
This allowed strong runners to bypass some of the more tricky navigation sections of the course. “It was great to see no one get lost and everyone finishing with smiles, it makes the job of organizer that much easier” said co-organizer Forest Pearson.
The Whitehorse Adventure Run event required the two-person teams to build a fire and bring half a litre of water to a boil using their mandatory gear and take a mandatory team photo at a scenic viewpoint of the city on the Magnuson ski trails.
The most popular sub-event was the Chilkoot Climb, sponsored by Chilkoot Lager.
The fastest team to climb the massive hill straight up from the shores of Chadden Lake to the biathlon ski trails on Grey Mountain Road won two Yukon Brewing Company gift certificates for post-race refreshment.
Rodney Hulstein and Scott Westberg won the Whitehorse Adventure Run in a time of 2:29:00 — despite sweating all over their fire starting paper, tossing their matches into their full water pot and dumping two pots of water before finally getting it together.
Orienteers Ross Burnett and Sky Pearson kept the pressure on and finished in a time of 2:38:00.
The husband and wife team of Dan Shier and Helen Stappers, the fastest hill climbers, won the Chilkoot Climb.
Tunde Fulop and Sylvia Anderson were the fastest to boil their water in an amazing six minutes and 38 seconds.
The People Enjoying Adventurous Competitive Exercise event was won by Don White in a time of 1:28:00. Barb Bowen and Barbara Scheck were hot on Don’s heels in a time of 1:30.
For complete results and photos, check the Yukon Orienteering Association website www.yukonorienteering.ca.
Whitehorse Minor Soccer
Under-16 (Tuesday)
Colad Laser Esthetics 5
Pine Plumbing 5
Will Stevely netted the hat trick for Pine Plumbing, and Zach Young added a pair to get the draw.
Pine’s MVP was Jillian Pare.
Colad Laser’s scorers were Alex Robinson with a pair, and MVP Ben Robinson, Lee Hawkings and Ed Oulton added singles.
Kopper King 4
Dave’s Cleaning 4
Sam Kumar got a hat trick for Kopper King and Chris Wynot singled. Markus Liebau scored twice for Dave’s Cleaning while David Ratcliff and Brett Hills each added a goal. MVPs were Helena Tlen for Kopper King and Markus Liebau for Dave’s.
Under-12 (Wednesday)
RCMP Drug Awareness 4
Locksmith Services 4
Travis Pumphrey scored a pair for the Cops in this match, which ended in a draw. Mary Bennett, and MVP Kim Brown added singles.
Mary Bennett netted two for Locksmith, and MVP Gibson Pearson rounded out the scoring.
BMO Bank of Montreal 7
Wal-Mart 4
Dahria Beatty and Dylan Sands scored two goals each for the Bank of Montreal, while Matthew (no last name provided) netted the hat trick. Clare Pugh took MVP honours.
Goals for Wal-Mart were scored by Max McNutt, with three, and Rowan Huggard, with a single.
Bumper to Bumper 6
Dana Naye 0
Brayden Kulych led Bumper to Bumper with a hat trick as they trounced Dana Naye. Tyler Wiens added two, and Brandon Langenhan scored as well.
Brondon Langenhan was named player of the game, and Dana Naye’s top player was Jeremy Linville.