Whitehorse Daily Star

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IN SYNC – The row of cyclists compete in the last weekend’s Tour de Skagway. It involved three stages, including a time trial, road race and the hill climb from sea level in Skagway up to the summit.

Parker nails hill climb, powers through Tour de Skagway

Ian Parker hammered the 20-kilometre hill climb last Sunday on the final day of the two-day Tour de Skagway.

By Chuck Tobin on May 24, 2018

Ian Parker hammered the 20-kilometre hill climb last Sunday on the final day of the two-day Tour de Skagway.

Parker finished the punishing climb from sea level to the summit in 55 minutes and 54 seconds, more than four minutes ahead of second-place Marc Lapointe in the expert men’s category.

Parker also posted the quickest time in Saturday morning’s 20-km time trial and the 72-km road race later in the day.

He was the only one in the expert men’s category to compete in all three races, recording a combined time of three hours, 46 minutes and 35 seconds.

Trena Irving, coach and coordinator for the U Kon Echelon Bike Club, was the only expert woman to compete in all three stages, and posted a total time of 5:05:01.

A total of 19 riders participated in the tour organized by U Kon Echelon and Sockeye Cycle of Skagway.

A number of members from the U Kon’s youth team are off to race in the Hayman Classic in Penticton, B.C. this weekend, while David Jackson in the Under-23 class is headed to Victoria to race and train.

In last weekend’s U-13 boys category that involved shorter distances in all three stages, Johna Irving-Staley finished in first with a combined time of 2:33:57, or just 31 seconds ahead of second-place Taiga Buurman.

Ava Irving-Staley posted the only combined time in the U-15 girls class which raced the mid-distances, finishing in 3:58:14.

In the U-17 girls category, with cyclists pedalling the longer distances in each stage, Veronica Porter posted the only combined time, finishing in 5:03:01, or two minutes ahead of the total time recorded by the team coach.

The next race for U Kon Echelon is the Yukon Energy Tour de Whitehorse on June 1, 2, 3. It is also a three-stage race.

U Kon Echelon is also inviting athletes to contact Trena Irving – trenairving@gmail.com – if they are interested in trying out for the cycling team that will represent the territory at the Western Canada Summer Games in August 2019 at Swift Current, Sask.

Comments (1)

Up 1 Down 1

My Opinion on May 26, 2018 at 8:03 pm

Way to go Ian. Good Job.

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