Offroad Ontario Corduroy Enduro recap, by Bill Watson 9/23/10

The 2010 version of the Corduroy Enduro took place in Gooderham on September 18 and 19th to cap off the Eastern Canadian Enduro Championship. Living up to the Cord reputation means it was long, gruelling and tough, enough to supply a years worth of bench racing stories for those willing to step up for the challenge. 137 riders started out on Saturday for 130 kms of some of Ontario’s roughest most difficult trails, Sunday supplied over 160 kms of similar abuse, divided amongst 18 checks.

Riders from all over Ontario, Quebec, and the northern US made the trip because the Cord is that big of a deal. Multi time Corduroy winner and legendary US racer/ innovator John Penton brought his son Jack and some of their old bikes and told great stories, in a room where you could have heard a pin drop for almost two hours Saturday night.

The weather was perfect for a fall race even though a steady rain Saturday night threatened even more mud for Sunday, in the morning the sun came out and all was good again. The racing was close with the top three riders battling for bragging rights on their times up green mountain (they were seconds apart) and the rest of the racing was no less exciting, several class battles were still measured in seconds after two days and over 12 hours of seat time.

There were tons of spectators at the Burnt River and Motocross tests to cheer on their riders and shout out swimming instructions to those in trouble. There is no way to put on an event like this without throngs of volunteers and many have been making the trip up north for over 30 years some stand in creeks to help rider through, some bake in the sun at checkpoints, this race more than most deserves a big huge thank you to all the volunteers. Here are the podium finishers:

Pro: 1st Patrick Beaule, 2nd Alan Lachapelle, 3rd Scott Bowes

Expert 1st Hugo Gravec Belanger, 2nd Hubert Desharnais, 3rd Rome Haloftis

Intermediate: 1st Barry Armstrong, 2nd Kyle Lueders, 3rd Alex Conti

Vet Expert: 1st Dennis Lebersan, 2nd Yves Ebacher, 3rd Gilles Desharnais

Veteran: 1st Chris Martin, 2nd Gilles Bussiere, 3rd Chris Zanelli

Super Vet: 1st Kevin Allen, 2nd Tom Irwin, 3rd Kelly Goreski

Masters: 1st Joel Lepley, 2nd Rick Day, 3rd Ted Dirstein

Novice: 1st Mike McCaw, 2nd David Beach, 3rd Zack Tustin

Women: 1st Jessica Cannell 2nd Melissa Head, 3rd Kathleen Head

Beginner: 1st Kevin Smith, 2nd Greg Quinn, 3rd Greg Vosper

Vintage: 1st Jack Penton

For all the results see the OO website: http://offroadontario.ca/ , or the Corduroy site here: http://www.corduroyenduro.ca/

The next round of the Offroad Ontario Enduro Series is the Terra Nova Enduro, named one of the best enduros in the NE in Dirt Rider Magazine, on October 17th