Edmonton Masters Cycling Club
2015 BAR and Award Winners
The 2015 season is over, all the results are in, and all the 2015 trophy winners are known.
To start at the top, in the rarefied air of the Master E (70 to 79) category, Sid McKinney will be taking the BAR trophy back down to Yuma again this winter. There’s quite a big time gap between Sid, his peers – the very early baby boomers – and the Master F (80 to 89) category. The “old guys” from the early days of the Club are now well into their 80’s, we haven’t had an over-80 competitor for a couple of years now, and in fact we’ve never had a rider competing beyond the age of 82. Yet.
The Fausto Coppi Trophy for the Master D BAR also stayed in the same hands again this year, but Peter Heppleston will be joining Sid McKinney in Master E next year. This is the oldest trophy the club has, and it was presented to the Club by the Italian Bakery in 1989 – I wonder if anyone there remembers? Heinz von zur Gathen was the first winner; that year Heinz also won the Canadian National Grand Masters road race championship in Fort McMurray, the Nationals being organised by Brian Jolly.
The Master C BAR Trophy stays in Juventus’ hands, with Lorne Dmitrik taking over from Dave Embury. Lorne rode strongly all year, especially against the clock, placing third in the Age Standard competition. He also picked up a good win in the Glory Hills road race in July.
The Toni Bevilacqua Trophy for the Master B BAR is the second-oldest trophy in the Club, presented to us by the Italian Cultural Society in 1990. This year the competition looked rather like a Velocity club championship, and Shane Rush took the title away from Réjean Lavoie, after Réjean went on vacation and gave Shane a five-week head start.
The Master A BAR trophy stays with Aaron Mumby for the third year in a row, after another season-long see-saw battle with Dan Nelson. We never have – or expect – many riders in the Master A category, as 30-something is hardly “old” for an endurance athlete these days. But we can provide a do-able regular competitive challenge for people at a time when they probably have more important priorities in their lives.
Regrettably the number of women participating in our events has been quite low for a few years. Both the Master A Women and Master B Women BAR trophies go to riders who raced for the first time this year – Margaret Chen and Kathy Miller respectively. In contrast, the Master C Women BAR this year is ex-Canadian National team member Gail Wozny, who is as ever a force to be reckoned with on road and track.
The Most Improved Rider (Female) this year is Margaret Chen. Margaret always looks rock-solid and smooth as silk on a bike, and we finally got to see her on some long Sunday rides and in a few time trials, where she performed very respectably, despite having no go-faster aerodynamic toys.
The Most Improved Rider (Male) for 2015 is Nick Insole. He steadily got faster as the year progressed, and had a go in all the races, like Margaret being handicapped in time trials by a lack of aero toys, but that didn’t stop him from giving it what-for.
And last but far from least, the Maurice Johnson Memorial Cup for the Age Standard Competition goes to Bruce Copeland. The format this year was that every time trial counted, so when Bruce had to miss a few events, including the 40 km at Bon Accord, there was a chance that his closest challengers, Peter Heppleston and Lorne Dmitrik, could have made hay while the cat was away. But the 40 was cancelled, the natural order of things prevailed, and the destination of the Cup was never really in doubt.
On behalf of all the riders, I would like to thank the volunteers who came out to run the races for us, especially those members who volunteered but didn’t actually race themselves: Marcy Dibbs, Donna Dotinga, Len Berg, Tom Facklam, Cliff Morrison, John Dawson-Edwards, Don McCabe, Lloyd LaRone, John Adomonis, Bill Doyle, Fraser Forbes, Jim Wiley, Perry Dalmer, Bruce Dotinga, Leigh Wincott, Ulf Kleppe, Dan Hunka, Owen Lepps. Thank you.