Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

CACTI CUP

Kamloops leg of BC Interior Cyclocross series draws competitors from all over Thompson-Okanagan

Sep 25, 2023 | 4:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — Originating in France before the end of the 19th Century, Cyclocross is said to have started as an off-road training method for road racers to stay sharp in the offseason.

Closer to home, Catharine Pendrel started BC Interior Cyclocross back in 2010, and since then the sport has grown into a series that features several events throughout the Thompson-Okanagan.

The disc golf course at Mac Island was transformed Sunday (Sept. 24) into a cyclocross race course. Close to 40 riders took part in the Cacti Cross race, which is one leg of the BC Interior Cyclocross Series.

“It’s loops,” Darrin Caruso, one of the organizers of the series, explains. “There’s about a two- to three-kilometre loop, and within each loop, there’s a series of barriers and a run-up where you have to get off your bike and navigate those. Usually, they’re somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour.”

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The course zigged and zagged all over the southwest corner of McArthur Island, going up hills, around tight corners and over some logs.

“It’s super fun,” Emily Lane, who has been doing the sport since she was just a little tyke, tells CFJC News. “It’s cool, so it’s comfortable. You can go super fast. I liked the natural barriers. They were fun to get off your bike and run across.”

Other competitors didn’t enjoy those barriers that were laid out on the course, quite as much.

“It was very exhausting,” Linden Hayward, 11, says. The hardest part? “I would say the logs.”

Mark Daws is a Kamloops rider who has been cycling for a few years but has just started riding cyclocross this season.

“It’s actually my second one, but first one finishing,” Daws explains. “My first one was last weekend, but I [Did Not Finish]’d it with a flat tire.”

Daws won the men’s single-speed race on Sunday morning. It was the first time he’d ever ridden a race like that where he had to set the gear for his bike without changing it during the race.

Image Credit: CFJC Today

“That was my first time ever doing that, so definitely harder on the legs,” Daws says. “You don’t have good gearing for everything, so some of the climbs are pretty much full-torque hard efforts.”

There are multiple divisions for athletes to compete in, so while you’re racing with everyone, your time will be compared to others in your category. Lane, who competes in the U15 women’s category, loves the sport.

“The community is very diverse and it’s a super fun sport to do on weekend,” Lane says.

The Hayward brothers were split on whether they’d be riding more in the future.

“I’m not sure,” Linden says. “Someday when I’m older,” Dayton says.

For organizers, it’s less about who wins or loses the races.

“Speed. Speed’s important in the sport,” Caruso says. “We really try and push the fun, because it’s really fun.”