A former professional cyclocross racer was the champion at the newly resurrected cycling race last weekend.

Marc Lapointe, who has raced for EMD Serono Specialized, EMD Serono Stevens and Nine2FivePro.com, completed seven laps of the about two-kilometre cyclocross course at Mount McIntyre in 55 minutes and 42 seconds to take the win.

“It was fantastic,” said Lapointe, who last raced cyclocross in 2014. It was his first time racing north of 60.

Cyclocross is a cycling event held on mixed terrain on a closed course with some obstacles designed to force the rider to dismount, carry their bike and remount to complete them.

“We had two sections where you clearly had to do that and a few other sections where it was optional,” said race organizer Kristenn Magnusson.

The last Whitehorse cyclocross event was in 2014. Last year Magnusson was on mat-leave from race organizing and brought it back again this year with a couple twists.

Among them was the 20-foot “flyover,” a wooden ramp in the stadium of the course.

“The flyover was a little bit difficult because it’s intimidating when you come up to it,” said Magnusson, who also raced.

“You have to get lots of speed to get on it, but once you’ve done it, it isn’t nearly as intimidating.”

The ramp was championed by Ian Parker and was first built in a backyard before it was dismantled into pieces, loaded onto a trailer and rebuilt at Mount McIntyre.

“He was determined,” said Magnusson of Parker. “There was some serious dedication.”

Cyclocross races usually have a ballpark time they should be completed in; for expert riders, it’s around one hour. After a mass start on Saturday afternoon, the timers waited to see how long the first lap took the fastest riders.

Then they did some quick math and set the race at seven laps for the expert riders and four for the beginners, said Magnusson.

“There were a couple really sketchy parts,” said Lapointe. He went over his handlebars on a sandy section during the first lap, “but I ended up riding it for the rest of the race, so it was fine. it was a blast.”

Some of the 14 riders had cyclocross bikes, a hybrid of a mountain and road bike. They look like a road bike frame, but are a bit sturdier and then have some mountain bike components, such as the brakes. But the main difference is the tires, which are wider and with thicker tread.

“The wider tires help you to deal with being on the off-road portions of it, so they help to give you a little float in the sand and they help with the gravel and smoothes out the rest of the course,” says Lapointe.

Magnusson was first introduced to cyclocross while living on Vancouver Island with a grass-roots series called Cross on the Rocks. That series started with 10 riders and now has more than 300 coming out to race.

“They started with 10 too,” said Magnusson. “It can happen.”

She, along with a small group of riders, hopes that the Whitehorse race can grow into a fall series with clinics and learn-to programs.

“It was a blast,” said Lapointe. “It would be fun to have this go on as a series if it could happen.”

RESULTS

Expert (7 laps)

1. Marc Lapointe 55:42
2. Anthony Bier 58:21
3. John Stamp 59:49

Beginner (4 laps)

1. Dan Bader 45:34
2. Sandro Holzinger 52:33
3. Zachary Anult 56:10