A course-long headwind slowed cyclists in the 22nd Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay Saturday, adding more than 90 minutes to last year’s winning time.
“It was so much harder this year,” said Jenn Walsh, Haines’ only solo rider. For the second consecutive year, Walsh placed first among solo women riders. Her time of 8:53:01 compared to 6:58:11 last year. “You spent the whole race terrified of losing the (drafting) group you’re with.”
Two Canadian women riding on separate, two-person teams allowed Walsh to ride in their wind shadow, she said. “Those two girls pretty much made the difference. It was a total gift.”
The father-son team of Sean Asquith, 54, and Quinn Asquith-Heinz, 21, led Haines squads overall, finishing in 8:50:57 and fifth among men’s two-person squads.
“I trained more than I usually do (and) I had a good start,” said Asquith, a race veteran who also has competed on four-person teams. “I don’t recall so much wind, ever. It was a strong wind the whole way.”
Competitive rider Chip Lende of Haines was seriously injured when he crashed a few miles into the race’s first stage. Rider Rob Welton of Juneau, who also serves as president of the relay’s board of directors, said Lende was in the “chase” pack trailing the fastest bikes when maneuvering by riders within his group apparently caused him to crash.
Wife Heather Lende said her husband suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken hip in the fall, although he was apparently not immediately aware of the extent of his injuries. He underwent surgery early this week and will be on crutches up to two months, she said.
Asquith said the first stage of the race is its most hazardous “because the riders are so close together, and there are so many different skill levels, and it’s a hard hill.”
Solo rider Jonah Clark, owner of a Whitehorse, Y.T., bicycle shop, won the race in 7:31:56, beating second-place finisher Derek Crowe, a rider on a two-man team, by four seconds. Clark was on a two-man team that won last year’s race in 5:57:21, a finish aided by a tailwind.
More than 1,300 riders on 320 teams participated in the relay, though the headwinds defeated some squads who were unable to finish by the race’s established end time of 9 p.m.
A Sockeye Cycle squad, with six riders from Skagway plus Thom Ely and Jeremy Reed of Haines, won the race’s mixed eight-person category in 9:21:22. Bike store owner Ely said his squad’s finish was made more impressive because its fourth-stage rider’s seat broke. “He pretty much rode all of leg four standing.”
Race president Welton said that with the exception of Lende’s accident, the race went “pretty smoothly.”
As rain fell before and immediately after the race, “we had great luck on the weather,” he said. Welton and teammates from past years each rode solo this year, stopping along the way including for lunch in Chilkat Pass. “We stopped for a picnic, or at least to eat something other than a Cliff bar.” Lunch only lasted about 10 minutes, though. “What got us going again was the wind. It was cold.”
Sixty-three solo riders registered for the race, but it appeared only 45 completed the course.
A full list of local teams, riders and results will be published in next week’s CVN. All results published this week are preliminary.