The King of the Canyon offered riders two choices: keep your head down and peddle or look up and enjoy the checkpoints.

The Yukon Mountain Bike championships, held on the Grey Mountain and Yukon River trails on Saturday, featured 50 kilometres of grind for those vying for king and queen honours and a 25-km haul for the prince and princess.

Dave Gonda, who has spent the summer training with the Calgary-based Cyclemeisters, reclaimed his crown as King of the Canyon with a time of 2:41.04.

"You never want to go into a race expecting to win, so I treat it like any other race, keep the training the same,” Gonda said.

Gonda was one of the Yukoners in this year's race who also competed in the TR3 TransRockies, which started on Aug. 8. Gonda finished seventh in the three-day solo race in that event, and has also competed at nationals and Alberta provincial races.

Sierra Van der Meer, another Yukoner back from the trans-provincial event, took the Princess honours at the King of the Canyon, with a time of 2:28.55.

"I just got back from TransRockies,” she said, "so 25 kms felt like a really short ride after that.”

For her, the event in Whitehorse was another chance to get reacquainted with the stunning trail system around the city.

"The trails in Whitehorse are better than anything I rode in the TransRockies, there are just amazing views,” she said.

This was Van der Meer's first year competing, though she had volunteered for the local event three years ago.

"In the men's long course, it was highly competitive,” said Van der Meer, who also organized this year's race. "On the other side, a lot of people rode it together, almost like a group ride, people had fun.”

Presenting options is key to making the race enjoyable for all, she added, because a highlight is the variety of people that turn out.

"You can kind of make it into what you want it to be. It's important for the races to be good for the racers, but it's nice to allow people to enjoy the beautiful trails and just ride.”

This year also saw the return of the queen category with four women in the long course, a vast improvement over last year when no women competed in that category.

Prince (25km)

Evan Wise 1:49.51

David Pharand 2:32.55

Princess (25km)

Sierra van der Meer 2:28.55

Leslie Vandermass 3:39.47

Carrie Burbidge 3:40.07

Julie DesBrisay 3:40.43

Margi Pazkowski 3:40.43

Jenn Roberts 3:40.43

King (50km)

Dave Gonda 2:41.04

Marcus Wattereus 2:46.47

James Minnifie 2:49.32

Jonathan Kerr 2:55.22

Ross Phillips 2:57.52

Arnold vanderWoodsen 3:02.22

Aaron Foos 3:05.49

Brian Nichols 3:14.50

Hans Gatt 3:18.39

Joe DeGraff 3:22.37

Devon McDiarmid 3:29.52

Scott Kerby 3:39.30

Sky Pearson 4:15.38

Paul Gowdie 4:47.54

Alex MacDonald 4:48.00

Queen (50km)

Tamara Goeppel 3:06.33

Nadele Flynn 4:47.57

Kris Gardner 4:54.11

Kealy Sweet 4:54.15