This year marked the 17th running of the Salty Dog 6 Hour Enduro mountain bike race on the beautiful South Canoe trails.
As always, the trails drew rave reviews from the many out-of-town riders, appreciative of the quality of riding available inthe area. Cooler-than-usual spring weather meant the trail was faster in some sections and slower than usual in others -different than the hot dry conditions of the past several years.
There were plenty of smiles and the same great attendance at the race as well as at the fourth annual Salty Street Fest heldon Saturday in downtown Salmon Arm, where locals and visitors in town for the race got to enjoy a great taste of theShuswap. The street fest included free live music, swing dance classes, street yoga, a bike swap, a petting zoo and muchmore.
This year’s sold out race featured approximately 500 riders in the main six-hour race, 100 under-15 riders in the three-hour race and 80 kids racing in the Salty Pup race. Riders enjoyed comfortably mild weather in the morning and thenendured cold, windy weather with rain and hail in the afternoon as they pushed toward their goals of delicious apple pies,cookies and Salty Dog trademark woodallions. “Of course, volunteers, over 100 of them at this race, are what makecommunity events like Salty Dog possible. A big thanks goes out to all of them,” said Greg Scharf of Skookum Cycle & Ski.
This fun, family event has become an annual rite of spring in which competitors of all ages and abilities come together andrace in teams of two or solo to complete as many 11-kilometre laps as possible before time runs out. It is one of the fewraces where recreational riders get to be on the same course, at the same time with world- and national-class athletes. Asalways many great performances were turned in on Sunday. Stand-out local performances in the six-hour main race were:
• Rachel May and Jessica Brown – first in their team category;
• Leah Nash and Trond May – second in their team category;
• Andrew Nash and Seth VanVarsveld – second in their team category;
• Aidan Hepburn and Kaelan Hougen – third in their team category;
• James Hardy and Konrad VanVarsveld – third in their team category;
• Alison Howatt and Laura Hepburn – third in their team category;
• Ben Van Bergeyk and Calvin Hepburn – fourth in their team category;
• Scott McKee and Keith Hepburn – fourth in their team category;
• Ash Ladyman and Dan Holmes – sixth in their team category;
• Doris Mills and Monica Nelson – seventh in their team category;
• Marlies VanDyck and Kira Limber – eighth in their team category;
• Clay Welder and Dirk Breugem – ninth in their team category;
• Jacob Hepburn and Finn Rodwell – ninth in their team category;
• Lee English and Tom Peasgood – ninth in their team category.
Complete results online at www.zone4.ca