Mississauga Criterium Report

Mississauga Criterium: The Mississauga Criterium took place earlier today in my hometown. I always LOVE racing in my hometown simply because it's where I live. I feel like there is this special connection between a race and I when I race at home.

A hard-working group of race organizers and volunteers put the Mississauga Criterum together. The race is mainly a cycling races and we (inline skating) were lucky to be invited to be part of the program. I found that having inline skating mixed in with the cycling program was a recipe for a good day's racing. The atmosphere was very nice thanks to the professional look of the event (announcers, barricades, all sorts of boothes, lots of spandex covered people with shaved legs, a very nice podium).


Bike race

Bike race
The inline skating races took up three time blocks- at 10:30am- women's race, 1:30pm- fitness/ youth race, and 3:00pm- men's race. All of the races were 10k's. The venue featured very smooth asphalt on a 980-meter closed (and fast) loop with smooth turns that required few if any crossovers.

Click here for the photo album or check out the slide-show below. I don't have any pictures of the men's 10k because my camera's shutter button doesn't work.



2007-08-06 Mississauga Criterium
The women's race was dominated by Sarah Hopkins, who is fresh off her first tour at the Pan American Games. 2nd place finished Kristy Shoebridge, who is moving to Calgary at the end of August, gave a strong chase. Candy Wong finished 3rd. Wong is starting to place higher in races and her times are getting quicker. Hopkins, who took the race right at the start, finished her race in 19:03.


Carolyn Cheng (she finished in 4th) leads eventual 3rd place finisher Candy Wong

Women's 10k winner Sarah Hopkins setting the pace

Women's 10k podium
Women's 10k
1- Sarah Hopkins- 19:03
2- Kristy Shoebridge- 19:48
3- Candy Wong- 21:30
4- Carolyn Cheng- 22:40
5- Gillian Clarke- 23:37

The fitness/ youth 10k saw Ed Leung collect the victory. Paisley Perrie was the top female finisher in this race despide suffering a crash at the end of the race when she clicked skates with another skater.


Start of the fitness/ youth 10k- watch out for Jacky Schu who is all twisted up!

Ed Leung leads the way in the fitness/ youth 10k
Fitness/ Youth 10k
1- Ed Leung- 19:13
2- Jake Wright- 20:27
3- Jacky Schu- 20:50
4- Paisley Perrie- 21:20
5- Michael Cole- 23:13
6- Liz Perrie- 23:54

The final race was the men's 10k. This race saw the most entries- including Montreal's Nick Zacchia who got lost/ confused in the Toronto public transit system- he made it to the competition venue 5-minutes before the start of the race thanks to a timely taxi-cab ride.


That's me doing an interview before the race
The main bunch stayed together for 5 laps despite a fast pace. Once the main pack settled and skated a few laps, Eric Gee was first to drop off the pace. Next to lose pace was Morgan Williams and then Jesse Pauley. Sergio Almeralla lost touch with the top group- which was now made up of Jordan Belchos and I. Jordan and I traded leads a few times for the final 4 of 10 laps and we sprinted for 1st place. I took Jordan at the end. Coming 3rd in the race was Jesse Pauley, who caught Sergio Almeralla off-guard and hawked at the line. Pauley beat Almeralla by .017 seconds! Jordan Belchos and I finished the 9.8k in 15:30.

Men 10k
1- Peter Doucet- 15:30
2- Jordan Belchos- 15:30
3- Jesse Pauley- 16:23
4- Sergio Almeralla- 16:23
5- Morgan Williams- 16:31
6- Nick Zacchia- 17:35
7- Scott Pauley- 17:39
8- Eric Gee- 18:34
9- Paul Shoebridge- 18:34
10- Travis Shaw- 19:53
11- Kevin Noh- 19:53

This event gave inline skaters a superb opportunity to showcase the sport- Wayne Burrett, Gillian Clarke, Candy Wong, and Il Peleton did a great job in taking care of important things like announcing, registration, and promotion of inline skating.


Il Peleton in the house!