Jesse Reams records new record time at Tour de Whitehorse cycling event

The 2008 edition of the Tour de Whitehorse wrapped up this past Sunday with some predictable results, but no shortage of aggressive hard solo attempts and hard charging action from the pursuers in the road race, which was the third and final stage of the Tour.

The 2008 edition of the Tour de Whitehorse wrapped up this past Sunday with some predictable results, but no shortage of aggressive hard solo attempts and hard charging action from the pursuers in the road race, which was the third and final stage of the Tour.
With better than expected weather for the entire weekend, the Tour kicked off on Friday night with what can best be described as the worst five minutes a cyclist will ever experience. The Prologue is a 2-km., lung busting, leg screaming with lactic acid charge up the Robert Service Way.
When the dust settled, a new record was set by local cycling star Jesse Reams, who competed in the Men’s Expert Class. He covered the course in an incredible three minutes and 39 seconds, averaging an incredible 31.2 km/hr.
What made Reams’ ride all the more impressive was the more than 20 km/hr headwinds the riders had to face.

Behind Reams clustered was Troy Henry at three minutes 55 seconds, Ian Parker at three minutes 55 seconds and from Juneau John Bursell at three minutes 58 seconds.
In the Women’s Expert Class, Juneau rider Janice Sheufelt bettered local rider Heather Enders by only seven seconds in a time of four minutes and 47 seconds.
Up and comer Ryan Burlingame easily topped the Men’s Sport field with an impressive four minutes. New Zealander Renee Wairau, who edged ever improving Shannon Meekins by only 10 seconds in a time of five minutes and 44 seconds, in the Sport Women’s category.
Audrey Sellars starting the hill climb. Sellars, competing in her first local event, was the first Novice Woman rider to crest the hill.
Heading into Saturday’s 17.5 km individual time trial, what Phil Ligget of OLN / Tour de France fame likes to call “The Race of Truth”, the General Classification (GC) standings (the leader is the person with the lowest accumulated time for all the stages) showed Reams holding a 16-second advantage over second place Troy Henry in the Men’s Expert Class.
By the time all had completed the course, the GC standings showed some movement as stronger time trialists made up time on the pure hill climbers.
Reams once again clocked the fastest time of the day, despite very strong headwinds on the outward leg of the course, of 24 minutes and 21 seconds.

A full twenty seconds back in second was Mike McCann and this moved him into third place in the Men’s Expert class GC, while John Bursell from Juneau moved up into second place only 46 seconds behind Reams.
Janice Sheufelt strengthened her grasp on first place in the Women’s Expert category by extending her lead to 45 seconds over Heather Enders. John Berryman set a personal best and won the Men’s Sport class in a time of 26 minutes and four seconds, just four seconds faster than Ryan Burlingame.

Burlingame, however, now held a 30 second advantage over John Berryman and 33 over Jud Deuling, in the GC heading into Sunday’s road race. Though finishing second to Renee Wairau by 12 seconds at 31 minutes 16 seconds, Shannon Meekins still set a personal best by one minute in the Sport Women class.
Audrey Sellars, in the Novice Women’s class, once again had a very solid ride over the demanding course in claiming first place.
The stage was now set for Sunday’s road race which promised to be both fast and very hard.
In the Men’s Expert Class, Reams held a 46-second lead over Bursell from Juneau.

Sheufelt had 45 seconds in hand over Enders in the Women’s Expert, Burlingame had 30 seconds over Berryman and Wairau had only 22 seconds over Meekins.
Starting in Carcross and finishing (for the Expert Men) with two laps of the Miles Canyon Loop, the steady tailwind and the hard hills at the beginning and end set the stage for some exciting racing.
The Expert Men raced 84 km and in the end Troy Henry, who had flatted out of the time trial the day before, stole the stage with some very aggressive riding.

The attacks started just after 12 km had been raced and the main animator was Derrick Hynes. Hynes and Henry eventually managed to break free from the rest of the bunch before the Annie Lake Road and entered the last 2 laps of the Miles Canyon loop with a small lead over a chasing peloton. Derrick Hynes making the turn in the Individual Time Trial.
In the end Hynes paid for his Schumacher like efforts and was unable to keep pace with Henry on the last lap. Reams surged on the final lap and ended up second and when all was said and done he had a two minute lead in the GC, over Bursell from Juneau and the GC Championship.
One of the more exciting moments came when Ian Parker, a very talented rider, and one of the master minds behind the popular Dry-Tri, flatted with a few hundred meters to go and had to run his bike across the finish line.
Expert Women raced 74 km. and this was comprised of, mercifully, one lap of the dreaded Miles Canyon circuit. Janice Sheufelt was finally able to dislodge Heather Enders on the the last few hills and soled in for the win and the overall championship.
Ever improving Jud Deuling, in the Men’s Sport Class gave Ryan Burlingame a run for his money over the 74 km they raced but in the end Ryan was able to use his superior hill climbing skills to finally shake Deuling and crossed the finish line 13 seconds ahead. With two stage wins and a second place in another, Burlingame won the GC in the Men’s Sport.
In the Women’s Sport, Renee Wairau saved her best effort for last gaining an incredible nine minutes on Shannon Meekins over the 64 km they raced and in the end simply rode away with the GC championship.
The GC winner for the Novice Women was Audrey Sellars.
The final road stage of the Tour de Whitehorse also serves as the Cycling Association of Yukon’s Road Race Championship. Grant Owen, coach of the Yukon Cycling Team and past president of the Association presented trophies to Jesse Reams and Heather Enders in the Expert Class, Shannon Meekins and Ryan Burlingame in the Sport Class and to Audrey Sellars in the Novice Women’s Category.
VeloNorth would like to thank all our volunteers, including Linda Stratis and Marg White, who made the past three days a huge success, the City of Whitehorse and YTG’s Highways and Public Works Department for all their support, the Alpine Association and Greg Kent for the results and timing package.

Finally the cycling club would like to thank all the riders for participating, displaying great sportspersonship and making this something it wants to continue doing.