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Off to the races: Start of the 2007 Season!
By:  Gavin Hamilton   (2006/12/14)

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Update! Well, Mother Nature is not co-operating with the ski conditions right now and the Timmins Ontario Cup has been canceled. While the trails were still somewhat white when the organizers made the decision to cancel, the photo below shows the general snow conditions in the area after several days of heavy rain. Tough call to cancel, but we appreciated the advanced warning so we could make other arrangements. Timmins has been host to many great races and I'm sure they'll host many more to come. It's a tall order these days to have a race in mid-December.

So, we are all headed to the Quebec Cup at the Foret Montmorency. Conditions are rumoured to be decent, so we're hoping for good races. We'll keep you posted.  Check zone4.ca for results.



This weekend a number of XC-ottawa members will be travelling to the northern birth place of one Canada's most celebrated singers, Shania Twain. This isn't the only reason we are making the 8 hour trek to Timmins, it was chosen as the location of the Ontario Cup #1.

It will be the first race for many of us (excluding our women who raced out West) so it will be nice to finally see if all the hard summer and fall training played off. For the U23 (under 23 years old) athletes Ed McCarthy and Gavin Hamilton it is also the Canada Winter Games qualification races for the Ontario team. They will be chosing 5 men and 5 women to travel up to Whitehorse in Febuary to compete against other provinces.

The races kick off on Saturday with a mass start skate race. The individual classic race is on Sunday and then there is a sprint race on Monday to round out the events.

Apparently there has been a good amount of snow up north so the races will be going on as planned. The forecast shows that the temperatures will be around zero so waxing might play a factor. Luckily our Vauhti expert and coach John Suuronen will be there with our wax helper/tester Judy.

The following members are going to be racing up in Timmins: Brian Suke, Karl Saidla, Ed McCarthy, Gavin Hamilton, Craig Storey, Megan McTavish.

At the same time Tom McCarthy, Sheila Kealey and Andrew Wynd will head East to Foret Montmorency to race in the first Quebec Cup.

 
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