Presented by the 112 Restaurant, the first Toonie Road Race of 2016 was unlucky to coincide with one of this spring’s few rainy days. Despite the rain and wet roads a few hardy cyclists made the best of it with 40km of fast and furious road racing. See the full results.Fresh from his recent victory against some of the province’s top road racers at the Race the Ridge road race, Kellen Viznaugh sprinted away from the pack on the first half lap multiple times, however everyone was together at the first turnaround. Rich Hamilton decided dirt roads were more to his liking and continued past the turnaround point at the end of the pavement. In a rare example of road race group generosity, instead of sprinting away the rest of the racers slackened the pace and let Rich rejoin them.With everyone now very wet, the number of break attempts diminished, but Karl Guillotte had his own problems when he hit a bump hard and lost his water bottle which he choose to stop and reclaim. This put him out of contention for the prize sprint at the end of the first lap in which nobody seriously challenged Kellen Viznaugh. The pace at the start of the second lap was generally sedate and Tyler Nerbas who had travelled from Sicamous for the race took advantage of this by breaking away on at least three occasions and staying out front for much of the second lap. Reunited with his water bottle Karl made a great effort and got back on with the group.Getting near to the finish the group put in a big effort to reign Tyler in, and this meant a group of six came in to the home straight with a frantic sprint finish likely. Guillotte still had the energy to lead out up the last rise and when he slowed Kellen Viznaugh put in a sprint that broke the field apart.. At the line Viznaugh's effort brought him victory with Stuart Smith close behind to take second place and Rich Hamilton edging out Brendan McIntosh for third.The second 112 Restaurant Toonie Road Race is the Mason Road Crit on Wednesday 1st June. There will be two 30 minute races. Register at 5.45pm for the 6.00pm recreational race and at 6.30pm for the 6.45pm competitive race. With the 2 races available this is an ideal opportunity for riders of all ages and ability levels to participate in a fun event.The first XC Toonie is in two weeks (25th May) and subsequent road and xc races are then happening every three weeks. There are two DH races scheduled for June.The Mt Revelstoke Steamer will be held on Sunday 7th August and registration opens this weekend on zone4.ca.
