Arduum claims some, and punishes others! -The weekend in review.

“The Arduum Challenge is back this year with a vengeance.” This was the opening line from the pre-race release. It was quite the understatement.

The top notch First Aid was kept busy all weekend.Saturday
Saturday on course there was a lot of profanities flying around. A lot of people were surprised by the difficulty and how technical the course was. As I walked around I heard everyone asking and giving advice on how to get through certain sections of the course. Sitting at the end of the course, were the gaps, claiming rim after rim and rider after rider. Everything about this course had some degree of technical ability. The gaps had either a corner in or a corner out, a transfer in or cross roots to ride over, the corners (most of the 53) had cross roots, rocks and off camber, even the breather section required your attention as there were cross roots and rocks to take you down if you relaxed too much.

Sunday morning
Racers were frantic to get up the mountain and get at least 2 laps, in a last ditch effort to dial this beast. When race time hit, of the 184 checked in and registered racers only 165 would start. Injury, broken equipment or the decision that the course was too much would win over 19 riders of all levels. The hardest hit of the categories was the Elite men with a total of 35 registered and 5 DNS.


The Arduum course still had some fight left and of the 165 that started 162 would finish and of the 162 there were 4 that went straight to the first aid tent with broken body parts. One of these riders actually rode this beast of a course with a broken arm; holding onto the bar with one hand on the front brake couldn’t have been easy but he was determined to show Arduum who was boss.

Throughout the day the timing crew worked miracles. Category results were posted within 5 minutes of the category end. No one contested the results and the awards ceremony started within 30 minutes of Dan Skogland finishing his run.

The Elite womens’ category purse winners were:
1. Rebecca McQueen Summit Gravity 5:01.67
2. Tanya Grunsky Cyclepath Kelowna/Giant Canada 5:26.09
3 Seana Wright 5:27.73
These brave women won $200, $75, $50.

The Elite mens’ category purse winners were:
1. Ewan Fafard 3:41.07
2. Dan Skogland Cove Bikes 3:43.39
3. Kevin Bartowski Cove Factory Team 3:47.85
4. Geoff Pendrel Pinkbike 3:48.92
5. Jeffrey Bryson Hayes Bike 3:50.06
These brave men won $500, $200, $100, $75, $50.


All said and done, everyone appeared to have a great time, challenged their riding abilities and did their best to tame Arduum, but like a rabid dog who has tasted blood this course refuses to lay down. Healing vibes to all the injured warriors, well done to all the made it, congratulations to all the winners. Expect more nastiness next year from Arduum.


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Special thanks to the District of Mission (www.mission.ca), the first aid crew (www.fasp.bc.ca), CyclingBC(www.cyclingbc.net), Lynch Bus Lines (www.lynchbuslines.com), and Denise Britton, without your support none of this would have happened.

Many thanks to all the sponsors for the 2008 Arduum Challenge.
Freeride Dawgs (www.freeridedawgs.com)
Pinkbike.com (www.pinkbike.com)
Transition Bicycle Company (www.transitionbikes.com)
Maxxis (www.maxxis.com)
Experience Cycling (Maple Ridge) (www.experiencecycling.ca)
Dunbar Cycle (Vancouver) (www.dunbarcycle.com)
Bicycle Café (Kamloops) (www.bicyclecafe.com/kamloops)
Muddbunnies (www.muddbunnies.com)
Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Assoc. (www.fvmba.com)

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