Last Sunday's King of the Canyon mountain bike race saw the fall of a two-time champion and the crowning of a new king, Whitehorse's Jonah Clark.

The annual race hosted by the Contagious Mountain Bike Club featured two courses, a 30-km short track and 52-km long track with 31 participants —11 in the short, 20 in the long.

The race went from Schwatka Lake to Long Lake through the trails ascending Grey Mountain, and finished on the Yukon River trails at Schwatka Lake.

"It's quite similar to last year,” said organizer Sierra Van der Meer. "It's almost all single track, we do very little road. It does almost all the single track on Grey Mountain Road all the way down to the lake,” she said.

This year saw the crown passed to Jonah Clark, who took top honours after two years of consecutive victories by David Gonda, another Whitehorse local and event veteran.

"It feels good to be done,” said Clark from the finish line. "I have done this five times and come close before. I usually place second or third; it feels great to win it this year.”

Clark, who finished the long race with a time of 2:43:07, has been training in CMBC's weekly Toonie races and has competed in several other events this year, most recently the Soggy Bottom 100, a 100-mile race in Alaska.

Clark finished six minutes ahead of Paul Burbidge, who came in second at 3:03:06. Marcus Waterreus placed third in the long race with a time of 3:06:02.

For Gonda, the race took an unfortunate turn. His derailleur broke near the halfway point, causing him to forfeit the competition.

"I was leading the race when I broke the derailleur,” he said.

"But that's the way it goes. It could have happened at a much worse time, at another race, but it happened here, it's not the worst thing in the world,” he said. "Jonah was riding strong, so it's good to see him win it.”

Tamara Goeppel, a long-time biathlon and mountain bike competitor who recently competed in the Absa Cape Epic, an eight-day stage contest in South Africa, retained her title as Queen of the Canyon.

She completed the long race with a time of 3:15:13. Goeppel was the only female in the contest, so only had to finish the course to retain the title, however, she still placed sixth overall, defeating 14 other competitors.

"This is a tough event with lots of climbing,” said Goeppel. "It's a very aerobic course and all the trails seem to be a bit different because of the weather conditions. So there is always a new twist; you can't take anything for granted. But I am so happy to be finished,” she said.

This year's short race was scheduled for 25 km but ended up being nearly 30 km, an extra push for this year's competitors.

The winner and new Prince of the Canyon was Land Pearson, with a time of 2:44:35.

He narrowly beat his brother, Sky Pearson, who crossed the line at 2:44:36.

This year's Princess title was taken by Julie DesBrisay who finished the race arm-in-arm with her friend Jenn Roberts, earning the title at 3:19:08, just a few inches and mere fractions of a second ahead.

Despite Gonda's disqualification, Van der Meer says the race went better than expected.

"The weather leading up to the race was a little bit dicey so definitely, you know as an organizer you're a little worried that it's going to pour and no one is going to come but it worked out.

"As for the result, when you have all these high-level competitors out there they really push each other to be as fast as they can,” she said.

"It's a shame whenever someone can't finish. But you know Dave's a great guy and a long-time racer, and it's nice to see a new person have the crown.”

Clark will compete in next year's King of the Canyon competition but Gonda says it's still too early to tell.

As for Van der Meer, she's already planning next year's contest, with the possibility of new trails.

"We are always looking at how to improve the trails or feature some new stuff that people aren't familiar with,” she said.

By MAX LEIGHTON

Star Reporter