Through June and July, the riders with the Walden Mountain Bike Club (WMBC) find themselves split, some taking to the roads south in seach of competition, others preferring to remain at home with a series of events planned at the Walden Trails.

Come August 10th, the hope is to gather much of the group together as the classic Cambrian Shield venue plays host to the Bush Pig Open Random 6-Hour Relay, with racing beginning at 10:00 a.m. and running right throughout the day.

Leading in to this event, however, the WMBC crew have been busy.

Back on June 16th, five WMBC Wolfpak representatives attended Ontario Cup #3 at Hiawatha Highlands, with Paul Guenette earning a bronze medal in the Open Men - XC Marathon event and then finishing first in a much smaller field which tackled the Senior Sport Men XCO.

Local teenager Alexandre Mailloux also fared well, placing second in the XCC and third in the XCO race, competing both times in the U19 Expert classification.

Rounding out the Open Men - XC Marathon Sudbury talent were Mike Banks (4th of 22) and Charles Reid (6th), with the latter also placing fifth in the XCO Master Sport Men (35-44) grouping.

Matt Hansford also took part in the XCO race, earning a silver medal while going head to head with seven other cyclists from across the province.

Later in June, it was a WMBC assembly some 13 deep that would tackle the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice at Albion Hills, with three intrepid riders challenging themselves in the solo event.

Marc Rioux (1st of 21 - solo 50+), Marc Larochelle (2nd of 18 - solo 40-49) and Noah Rioux (4th of 8 - solo under 40) would all enjoy some well-deserved recovery time in the aftermath of this gruelling competition.

Entering a sextet of Stacey Greene, Carol Mourre, Jess Lonsdale, Jocelyne Heneberry, Megan Bischoff and Monika Jost in the six-person all-female division, the locals ranked fourth of six.

Joining forces with cyclists from around the province, Paul Guenette and Jake Gougeon helped led their four-person team to victory (29 entries) while Scott McClure and Lisanne Gauld assisted a 6-10 person mixed team to a 24th of 35 seeding last month.

On June 22nd, Jody Waddell and Kristian Bishoff travelled State-side to participate in the 2024 Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder in Michigan, with both northern athletes shining in their respective 100-miler: Waddell - 3rd of 19; Bischoff - 7th of 19 - both in the 45-49 Open bracket.

One final out of town event closed off the month of June as a pair of WMBC folks travelled to Duntroon, site of Ontario Cup #4. Joe Zito competed in both the XCC race (15th of 22) and XCO race (12th of 19) while Matt Hansford was back in the same event he had medalled earlier in the month, just off the podium at 4th (of 13).

While some of the same names were on hand on July 8th for the second of the Bush Pig Open series of races, so too were many, many others who do not venture out of town for competition.

Understandably, the longer distances were dominated by the more experienced folks - Paul Guenette, Mike Banks and Marc Larochelle finished 1-2-3 in the 20 km distance - the 13km mass start would see the likes of Tanner Reitkoetter (U16 boys) and Colin Veevers (40-49 men) rising to the top.

The 5km advanced race featured first place finishes for Gordon Seguin (U16 - Boys) and Emma Mourre (U16 - Girls) while recreational 20km victories were shared by Bairn Kruger (30-39 men) and the women's tandem of Jess Lonsdale and Carol Mourre (40-49 and 50-59 respectively).

Last but not least, 5km recreational accolades were doled out to Brody Larochelle (U16 - boys), Charlotte Seguin (U16 - girls) and Anita Masuskapoe (40-49 - women).