The cold and wet didn't deter a group of dedicated cyclists from riding in U Kon Echelon Bike Club's cross-country mountain bike race at the Gunner Nielsen and Mickey Lammers Research Forest on Sunday.

The idea for the race came from Derek Crowe. He and his wife, Jane, are involved in the "Singletrack to Success" program where Derek and his singletrack crew created many features of the course the day followed called "The Flow Trail".

There were 40 people registered on race-day with 33 actually taking the trails. A highlight for U Kon Echelon coach Trena Irving was the new faces who competed.

Irving, a teacher at Porter Creek Secondary School, saw several students participate.

"In all, there were seven students from PCSS racing, and almost all of them were new racers, although not new to riding," Irving wrote.

When Irving founded U Kon Echelon almost a decade ago, the majority of the club was comprised of PCSS students. Since then, there haven't been as many students from PCSS riding with the club but she is eager to get more out.

Another highlight for Irving was the number of girls in the race.

"Although everybody wasn't able to start, there were about 10 females who registered and the youngest rider was a four-year-old girl," Irving wrote. "It was really cool to see youth aged four through 17 doing the same racecourse."

Rylan Morris was the four-year-old and she rode an impressive 53:04 to cover the six-kilometre distance. She won the youngest female rider medal. Rylan was accompanied by a parent.

Rowan Evens, five, was the youngest racer in the U7 category. He rode the six-kilometres in 49:25 – he was also joined by a parent. Rowan won the youngest male rider medal. Callum Fischer, 59:10 placed second. He had two brothers competing in older age categories and had his dad accompanying him.

Gally Cann, in U7 girls, rode the six-kilometres in 35:18.

The U9 boys category had a strong showing with six cyclists competing. Lowell Minifie, 24:05 earned first place. Roger Luxemburger, 26:13:11 just edged out Max Labelle for second by a couple of milliseconds.

Oliver Cann, the lone U11 boys participant, had an impressive time of 24:37. Juliet Crowe, a U13 girls rider, did two laps in 45:04 to win. In Novice boys, Brand Lowen got the win – his fellow competitor Gabe Coderre crashed and didn't finish.

The U13 boys had six cyclists. They rode two laps covering 12-kilometres. Heron Land-Gillis came first at 43:35. Land-Gillis had an impressive athletic weekend; he ran in the Yukon Cross Country Champions on Saturday, then rode the Dream Trail at Grey Mountain before competing.

Reid Saniford finished one second behind Land-Gillis and Alex Lebarge came third.

Taiga Buurman, 44:08, was the top U15 boys rider. Trustan Boulanger and Drayden Fentie placed second and third respectively.

The U15 girls did two laps and had Cassidy Lowen take the top spot in 50:17. Fellow cyclist Jacqueline de Jager rode one lap to still grab second.

The U17 boys did three laps. Seth Falle won the day in one hour, two minutes. Nathan Boulanger had a mechanical issue and only got two laps in.

In U17 and U19 girls, Ava Staley and Veronica Porter were the lone participants in their age groups. Staley did her collected laps in 1:04:49. Porter's time was 1:08:30. Both won their age division.

Irving was the only Masters women rider and had a time of 45:21 over two laps. Peter Saniford, 52:52 won the Masters men race. Ed Gillis came second in 1:10:32.

U Kon Echelon is planning another race at the PCSS trails for this weekend. Looking into October, if the weather holds, a Halloween-themed race could be in the cards.

Throughout the winter U Kon Echelon will be focusing on fat biking and will be hoping to organize a winter series of races.