WILMINGTON, N.Y. --- When you’re ahead of your nearest competitor by more than five minutes you can take the time to savor the moment. Kevin Bouchard-Hall (Westport, N.Y.) didn’t ride his bike across the Wilmington Whiteface 100K MTB’s (WW100) finish line, instead with arms and bike raised high over his head, he walked across it, winning Saturday’s, June 3, race.

“This is my home course, I’ve been targeting this event for a while, so I’m glad that I’ve finally won it,” said Bouchard-Hall, who completed the grueling 69-mile ride in four hours, 4 minutes, 10 seconds.

“The course was fast, it was really, really fast and it was packed down really well. The weather wasn’t too cold and it didn’t pour like last year, so everything just came together,” he continued.

Riding alongside Mathieu Belanger-Barrette (Quebec City, Quebec), Bouchard-Hall broke away from the two-time defending champion near his come, close to the Town of Jay, and took control of the race.

Beginning and ending at Whiteface Mountain Saturday’s race took the field through some of the region’s most challenging cycling terrain that included twisting jeep and gravel roads, backcountry trails and demanding hill climbs that measure more than 750 meters each.

From the bridge at the Olympic mountain, the out and back race carried the cyclists to Route 86, the Fox Farm Road, Springfield Road, Hardy Road, Bartlett Road, Lacy Road and Limkiln Road before reaching Route 9N.

From 9N, the race’s most demanding and technical terrain and climbs awaited the field, as they peddle through Styles Brook Road and the Jay Mountain Road ahead of Carlott Road and Blood Hill Road.  From there, the field made its way to Roscoe Road, Bronson Lane, Blueberry Hill and out to Lord Road before returning to the Flume Trails and Whiteface Mountain.

“My stratagy was to follow Mathieu, he’s increadibly good and I have a ton of respect for him,” noted Bouchard-Hall, who finished third to Belanger-Barrette last year. “I knew that since he had won the last two years that he was going to control the race because he wanted to win again. He was calm and collected early on, but after the decent down Jay I got a gap and it just stayed. I probably looked back about a 100 times today, but that gap never closed.”

Belanger-Barrette crossed the finish line in 4:09:36, while Dolzani Samual (Boulder, Colo.) was third, in 4:09:54.

Veronique Fortin (Gatineau, Quebec) claimed the women’s crown. Fortin set a blistering 4 minute, 06 second per-mile pace and crossed the finish line in 4:37:55, nearly 24 minutes ahead of the second place rider, Regina Legge (Salem, N.H.). Legge, who won the silver medal last year, was almost 40 minutes faster this year. She stopped the clock in 5:01:01.

Susan Lynch (Dorset, Vt.) finished third, in 5:13:30.

Seventy-five of Saturday’s athletes are now making plans to race in the Aug. 12 Leadville 100 MTB.  Thirty-seven of the LT100 qualifying spots were awarded based on performance in each division for men and women, while the others were distributed randomly from a pool of all racers, who finished under the maximum cutoff time, which was eight hours. 

Patrick Carey (Keene, N.Y.) successfully defended his men’s 50k title in a time of 1:48:06, while Tara Geraghty-Moats (Fairlee, Vt.) won the women’s 50K event with a time of 2:06:22.

For a complete list of 100K and 50K results visit https://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-21614.

Photos, courtesy of ORDA/ Whiteface Lake Placid are available HERE.

-- ORDA --

Established in 1982, the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) was created by the State of New York to manage the facilities used during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid. ORDA operates Whiteface, Belleayre and Gore Mountain ski areas; the Olympic Sports Complex at Mt. Van Hoevenberg; the Olympic speed skating oval, Olympic jumping complex and Olympic arena. As host to international and national championships, the Authority has brought millions of athletes, spectator and participants to the region, resulting in significant economic development.