Numbers may have been down for the Yukon Secondary School Mountain Bike Race series yesterday afternoon, but the competition was just as tough.

The first of race of the short month long season took off from Porter Creek High School Wednesday afternoon.

Racers started around the start of the school by the flag pole and had to run to their bikes before hitting the trail.

The foot race to the bikes was implemented last year to prevent a traffic jam of racers trying to hit the ramp leading down to the trail at the same time and to prevent injury.

The first category to run the course were the Grade 8 boys and the open girls, who did two laps of the course.

Racers ran into problems when a ribbon marking the trail went down, causing a few participants to go off the 1.3-kilometre course.

Of the three girls to run, two went off course. Winner Audrianna Antilla was the only one of the pack to stay on course, coming in well ahead of the other two girls.

Grade 8 boy winner Aiden Allen said he was able to stay on course because he got a chance before hand to do a pre run.

"One of the ribbons [was] down, so I had an advantage because I did a pre run,” said Allen. "I'd already done it, and I knew pretty much the whole course.”

The Grade 8 student from Ecole Emilie-Tremblay came in well ahead of the rest of the racers in his second season of mountain bike racing, a major improvement from last year, he said.

"Last year I came in I think twelfth,” said Allen.

Coming in behind Allen were Craig Berube from F.H. Collins, and Etienne Geoffrey from EET.

The Grade 9/10 boys and 11/12 boys took off for a three lap run of the course after the first group. After Allen's commanding lead over the Grade 8 pack the 9/10 and 11/12 groups ran a closer race with Nigel

Sinclair-Eckert pulling in ahead of the 9/10 group followed by Simon Geoffroy and Josh Kelly. The 11/12 group were led by Alidas Jamnicky and Nathan Seifert.

Organizers say numbers are down considerably from previous years.

Trevor Hale, an organizer who did the registration for the riders said the decline in numbers could be due to several reasons.

"It might have had something to do with the school year starting in the middle of the week,” said Hale. This year the organizers of the bike races had less time to get the word out to students who went back to school

Tuesday.

Riders were down in all categories, particularly the 11/12 boys, where only two racers competed.

"This is the first year we haven't had any 11/12 boys. Usually its a really competitive category,” said Hale.

Hale said the first race may be down not only because of the short notice the students received but due to less promotion. According to Hale, last year organizers went around to classrooms to recruit racers.

Hale hopes that word of mouth and publicity from Wednesday's race should spread and bring in more racers in time for the second running next week will be hosted by EET at the Canada Games Centre on the Mount McIntyre ski trails.

The following week F.H. Collins hosts the series off Chadburn Road. and the final will be held at Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Riverdale.

At the final race there will be a barbecue and prizes will be given to the top riders. In previous years Icycle Sport and Phillippe's Bike Repair shop have donated prizes for the winners.

The mountain bike races are a different type of sport Whitehorse's local high schools are offering for students who don't fit into team sports.

"It's great for those kids that aren't into the team sports,” said Hale. He says the bike races offer students who don't enjoy the conventional high school sports such as volleyball orbasketball.

Hale says the other benefit is that students don't have to train to participate.

"You just come out and race,” he said.

Yukon High School Mountain Bike Race series

Race 1 results

Grade 8 Boys

1 Aiden Allen EET

2 Craig Berube FHC

3 Etienne Geoffroy EET

4 Martin Brenner FHC

5 Travis McCallum FHC

6 Findley Sparling FHC

7 Trace Bowers-Couture FHC

Open Girls

1 Audrianna Antilla FHC

2 Sara Burke-Forsythe FHC

3 Rebecca Gaetz VCSS

4 Melissa Boare FHC

Grade 9/10 Boys

1 Nigel Sinclair-Eckert PCSS

2 Simon Geoffroy EET

3 Josh Kelly PCSS

4 Elliot Berg Vanier

5 Brydon Kulych PCSS

6 Francis Belanger EET

7 Dylan Sands PCSS

8 Anatol Tuselack

9 Tyler Dewar FHC

10 Chris Fisher PCSS

Grade 11/12 Boys

BMX

1 Alidas Jamnicky FHC

2 Nathan Seifert FHC