Hardwood Hills Canada Cup #3

Photo : Marek Lazarski

by Olivier Laprade Opus/OGC

This weekend was the third stop of the XC Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills ski&mtb centre in Ontario. The Opus team was present with 5 riders. They all started at 11h30 on Sunday. 5 laps for the Elite men and 4 laps for the Elite women and Junior men were scheduled on the fast rolling course. The weather was cold and a bit of rain was falling on and off.

First was the Elite Men with Jonathan Boulanger (Opus) and Léni Trudel (Opus). The
pace at the start was very fast, as the top rider wanted to be up front for the single track section a the top of the first climb. Jonathan had a good start around 20th place but Léni got caught in a crash 500 meters after the start. He had to worked is way up the field from last place. The fast pace kept going for all the 5 laps. Jonathan moved up to 15th despite a crash. For Léni bad luck struck again at the end of the third lap. He was around the 20th place when is seat post broke in half. He stop at the tech zone so I could take the piece out and put the saddle back in with the reminder of the seat post. I sent him back for half a lap to meet him at the other tech zone with a new seat post. But after 4.5 KM standing and sitting too low the cramps were just to bad when he got to me at the second tech zone. He finally stop there.

The Junior men's with Jonathan Boucher (Opus) and Steve Caillé (Opus) put a good fight and it was good for 8th and 9th place. They both came sprinting for they positions and fired up the crowd with a really close finish.

Caroline Villeneuve (Opus) in senior elite women was 11th.

Team mechanic got 3 third in master sport 30-34.

Next week Quebec Cup circuit move to Baie-St-Paul for the third race of the
series.