Race number three for the Tuf Rack Ontario Cup Downhill Series went down last weekend at the beautiful Horseshoe Resort. This was the series’ second stop at Horseshoe Resort this year and the venue continues to be a favorite among the riders. Small time gaps between riders are the norm here, which makes watching and participating in the event very exciting.
The course for this weekend did not disappoint. A last minute course change meant that the expected “Tuf Enuff” course from previous years would not be used. Instead the popular bike park trail “Fast Track” would host the event. This meant less traversing, less hiking, and more practice runs for racers; changes that were welcome by all.
At the top of the course riders were faced with a couple tight switch backs, followed by a series of high-speed bridge sections forcing the riders to sprint nearly the entire first quarter of their run before a tricky short wooded section. From there the trail led to a nifty step down to step up section that was a popular location among riders and photographers allowing for some big whips and overall good times.
Immediately after the step up riders found themselves back in the woods at high speed entering a series of “smashable” berms and high-speed off-camber sections. The wooded section ended with an optional triple jump that was the topic of debate among riders all weekend. Whether it was faster to hit the jump or not seemed to be a matter of rider preference. Do you jump and hope for a smooth landing or do you keep the tires on the ground and sprint by on the left? At the end of the day the answer was still not clear.
What was clear though, was that times were closer than ever with winning times across most categories being within about 8 seconds of the fastest time of the day.
Josh Toohill was the man who would post fastest time of the day winning Sr. Elite with an amazing time, followed by Mike Hermanovsky by a slim .09 seconds. Third was current series leader Taylor Rowlands, and rounding out the podium was Ken Brake and Joe Jenkins in fourth and fifth respectively.
“Sum up the race in one word?… FAST! Tuf Rack and Horseshoe put together a track with high speeds and some creative (b) line choices. Sprinkle that with loose horseshoe dirt and you’re in for a good time. The key to laying down a good time was carrying your speed. Sneaky pedal strokes and scrubs were the name of the game. Taking my first elite win feels so good! It’s been on my to-do list for quite some time. Stoked!” – Josh Toohill | Silent Norco Racing
The girls had a strong showing this weekend with Arianna Vegter taking the win by a solid two seconds over second place Paula Drozdzal and third place Diane McCullagh.
“Horseshoe always delivers a great event, but being able to race a different track than in previous years was a real treat! The track was fast, and had great flow, resulting in some very close times. I was stoked to pull together a fairly clean run and take the win! Even more stoked on seeing new ladies out and killing it! All in all, great weekend, I’m still smiling!” – Arianna Vegter | Sweet Pete’s / Primary Racing
We had a few new faces join us for the race this weekend. One of which was Meagan Broughton. We recently featured Meagan in an interview about her popular ladies downhill clinics with Blue Mountain.
“Advice from the TUF Rack crew on the importance of a course walk, eavesdropping in the lift corral for secret lines, and realizing that even the pro’s get nervous all added to a massive learning curve this weekend at my first DH O-Cup. The scene is so welcoming, one I will return to for sure. A huge thanks for all the wise words of wisdom I received.” – Meagan Broughton
Other notables from the weekend include the domination of the enduro bikes in Sr. Expert that helped Tyler Pratt take the win over Nick Outram who was also on a lower-travel sled. Brandon McQuaid took home third place. The Senior Sport category saw arguably the closest battle for the podium. Jeff Sevenson blew the rest of the field away by two seconds to take the win, but the time gap between Brock Reinhart in second, Stephen Hayes in third and Quinn Wigle in fourth was less than two tenths of a second.
Tuf Rack’s now infamous 16” bike race went down Saturday night before the downhill finals on Sunday. Colin MacIntosh proved once again that he is nearly unstoppable on a child’s bike taking the win in what was probably one of the most intense 16” race finales we’ve ever seen. Kaleb Hellreichtook second and Jordan Anderson took third.
Here are a few images from the great weekend of racing at Horseshoe Resort.
Colin MacIntosh (East Side Riders Race Club) with a big X-up over the step up.
Jacob Thompson (Total Sports the Bike Shop) snapping it fast and low into the second woods.
Hung Lam (Cove Ontario) with a little euro style.
Nick Outram (East Side Riders Race Club) lays down a big whip for riders heading up in the lift at Horseshoe.
Tyler Pratt (Rocky Mountain Bicycles Factory Team) clicked on his Altitude MSL.
Josh Toohill (Silent Sports) with a big ol’ bar hump.
Always fun to watch, Tyler Skrinek with a dirty whip.
Local ripper Ken Brake (Sweet Pete’s / Primary Racing) pinned though the berm.
Master 40+ rider Mark Matthews (Total Sports the Bike Shop)
Benjamin Tellerd (Tuf Rack Racing) getting a lap in on his 16″ race bike.
Elite Female race winner, Arianna Vegter (Sweet Pete’s / Primary Racing)
Marcus Greod (East Side Riders Race Club) was killing it everywhere on the track.
Everyone was stoked to see Toohill take the win. Amazing guy on and off the bike.
Tough to beat Tyler Skrinek in a corner. Lowest we saw anyone get in practice.
Great to see Joe Jenkins (Sweet Pete’s / Primary Racing) back in action.
Tyler Pratt, winner of the Senior Expert (19-29) race.
Marcus Greod spots the landing.
Tom Nafziger (East Side Riders Race Club). Perfect over the triple.
Tyler Skrinek staying low over the triple. Must have killed him a bit inside.
Kaleb Hellreich (Tuf Rack Racing) and Joel Whetstone (Team Totally Spoke`d) through the whoops on the 16″ course Saturday night.
Tom Nafziger railing the little bike.
The epic battle between Jordan Anderson and Colin MacIntosh.
Carnage in turn two. Streamers and hockey cards everywhere.
Brock Reinhart (Cove Ontario) on his way to a second place finish in the super competitive Senior Sport (19-29) class
Everywhere we saw eff Sevenson he was on the gas. Every shot we have of this guy is textbook.
Nice to see veteran Ontario DH racer, John Summach, (Adrenaline Racer / To Wheels) back on the scene.
Healing vibes for Peter-John Wegrynowski who was injured in a vehicle collision this weekend. Get well soon Pete!
Steven Abell (Sweet Pete’s / Primary Racing), foot out, flat out.
Toohill on his way to the top spot on the box. Congrats Josh, you earned it buddy!
Taylor Rowlands (Silent Sports) manages a 3rd place finish behind Josh and Hermo.
Watch the 16” Finale:
The next race for the Tuf Rack Downhill Series is the series finale and Provincials at Sir Sam’s Ski & Bike in Haliburton Ontario. With the titles of Provincial Champion and O-Cup Overall Champion on the line, this event promises to have racing even more exciting than this one.
Full Results List: http://www.ontariocycling.org/ocapages/web_pages/results/20140824-205438-33-All-2014.htm
OCUP Standings: http://www.ontariocycling.org/ocapages/web_pages/results/20140824-205536-DH-Standings-3-2014.htm
FastTimes
( August 25, 2014 )
Nice job on the report @BKREINHART
bkreinhart
( August 25, 2014 )
The very least I can do. Thank you once again for supporting our series with your bad-ass photos. Hope everyone had as much fun this weekend as I did. But I still want to know, what’s faster? Triple or no triple?
Old School Johnny
( August 25, 2014 )
great weekend!! Was an incredibly fast course. Glad to be back on the horse. Looking forward to DH4! Thanks for all the supporters and photographers who made the weekend possible! Healing vibes to Pete and his beautiful family also.
Jamie Lynch
( August 25, 2014 )
Awesome read, Mr Reinhart couldn’t be more right! The support that is out there really keeps all the riders attitudes and egos sky high in the series! As a new rider and new into the series I would personally like to thank my Cove team mates, Marc for his amazing support as well Tuff Rack for an amazing weekend!
AdreniJR
( August 25, 2014 )
After reading and seeing the photos, it sucks knowing i missed out on an awesome weekend. Excited to see everyone at Sir Sam’s! Just throwing it out there but i say ” Triple for the win!”
Jo-Ann Hellreich-Weir
( August 25, 2014 )
As always Marc, your photos are epic! Thanks to both you & Brock for highlighting yet another awesome weekend of downhill racing sponsored by Tuf Rack. Kudos to the photographer that captured the 16″ race on video …. if laughing your ass off on Saturday wasn’t enough, you can just keep hitting replay!
Tpratt
( August 26, 2014 )
Triple was def faster! Thanks marc for coming out again to support our series! This track may have not been the most challenging track in the world, but it was insanely fun to ride and since it left no room for error, was a super great race track!
FastTimes
( August 26, 2014 )
Watched the triple for some time and am pretty certain it was fastest, even if it wasn’t executed perfectly. Just too much course correction on the go around.
AustinFloydDH
( August 26, 2014 )
sweet write-up Brock! and what more can be said about Mr. Landry’s photographic genius making every O-Cup report seem like World Cup coverage! racing the bike park course was a winning idea in my mind, guaranteeing i’ll be the fastest of my buddies when we hit up Horseshoe next! eeeeeeep
bkreinhart
( August 26, 2014 )
As it turns out the winners of most categories seem to say the jump is faster. So I’m going to side with them and say I made the wrong choice on my race run… though there was still no chance of me catching Mr. Sevenson lol.
brodieclan
( August 29, 2014 )
Mark always amazing work as always, you bring out the brightest sides of every rider here. Jon “TUFRACK” Anderson, you do such an amazing job with what you have to work with and make our races so much fun. Thank you for all the kind words and well wishes to both my family and I as we make it through this hard time.