Do you have a winning disposition?
Mary Chamberlin
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Les Mardis cyclistes de Lachine: Cranking it up to 70 km/h
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There is no shortage of bike races in Montreal for the competitively inclined
Many a Montrealer has cruised the streets on a second-hand bike, with panniers full of goodies from Jean-Talon Market, or slightly wobbly from too many hours on a St-Denis terrasse. Undoubtedly, every commuter has crossed paths with a lean, spandex-clad cyclist on a gleaming carbon fibre bike and has wondered where he is heading.Summer in Montreal is overflowing with high-level competitive bike racing. The most notorious standing race in Montreal is the Mardis cyclistes de Lachine criterium. Billed by founder Joseph "Tino" Rossi as the world's fastest criterium, sprint finishes can reach nearly 70 km/h. Following a tight, one kilometre lap around Parc Lasalle in Lachine every Tuesday in the summer, up to 90 cyclists battle it out for an hour.
"I've done crits in Sacramento, Vancouver, Victoria," said cyclist Nick Rowe. "There's nothing like it. There's pushing, shoving and yelling - it's like a junior hockey match, with the same 20 to 30 guys fighting it out on the same course every week."
Another longstanding race is the Classique Louis Garneau Montréal-Québec road race. Established in 1931, a huge peloton of riders in a rainbow of uniforms races the 260 km from Montreal to Quebec City in the oldest and longest professional bike race in North America.
The weekend of May 30, 2009, Montreal will again play host to the sixth stage of the UCI Women's World Cup. Montreal is the only North American city to host the race, where the best women in the world fight it out in the baking sun on a gruelling
course, climbing Mont Royal on Camillien-Houde no less than 11 times.About an hour's drive from Montreal, Ski Bromont offers both grinding single track and heart-pounding downhill race action. The Nissan UCI World Cup passes through Bromont July 31 to Aug. 2, bringing the world's best mountain bikers within a stone's throw of Montreal. There will be no shortage of crashes and gashes, since in addition to the downhill racers careening down the hill and cross country racers grinding their way up, there is also a head-to-head four-cross race.
For those with a spandex allergy but who still yearn for competition, the subculture of the alleycat calls. Alleycat races are messenger-oriented races with checkpoints all over the city. The winners will have excellent bike-handling skills in traffic and legs of steel, and will know the city backwards and forwards. To get the lowdown, swing by Bikeurious at 1757 Amherst.
