After a year-long wait, the 2022 Canada Summer Games finally commenced on Saturday, August 6, 2022, beginning with the Opening Ceremony held at the Meridian Centre in downtown St.Catharines, Ontario. The games were originally scheduled to be held in 2021 but the Canada Games Council postponed the Games to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a lot of pent-up excitement and anticipation as the Canada Summer Games welcomes approximately 5,000 young athletes, coaches, and staff to the Niagara region for two weeks of high-level competition across 18 different sports, including Mountain Bike XC and Road cycling.
The road cycling events including the Individual Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium will be held during the second week of the Games between Aug 16th-20th. The mountain bike events which include a cross-country race, team relay, and sprint were held during the first week of the games between Aug 8th-12th.
Team BC Mountain Bike athletes included,
Male:
- Cam McCallum (Charge BCXC Racing) – Langley, BC
- Jasper Fleming (Balance Point) – Squamish, BC
- Noah Rubuliak (Giant Canada) – Kelowna, BC
Female:
- Marin Lowe (Stimulus-Orbea) – Garibaldi Highlands, BC
- Madeleine Pollock (Team DEVO) – North Vancouver, BC
- Geza Rodgers (Liv) – Port Moody, BC
The team was supported by Cycling BC Provincial Head Coach, Joel Harwood, and Cycling BC High Performance Program Manager, Tara Mowat.
The mountain bike events got off to a very muddy start on Monday, August 8th, with a cross-country race that was hit by a low-pressure system that brought heavy rain to the region, making the course slick and difficult to manage—even for some of the country’s top riders. 2022 Canadian National XCO Champion, Marin Lowe of Team BC, described it as the “craziest race I have ever competed in!” Despite the challenges, Marin managed to place 2nd in the female race and added a silver medal to Team BC’s medal count. Geza Rodgers finished in 10th and Maddi in 13th. Ontario’s Ava Holmgren took the win in the competition. Cam McCallum had BC’s best time at 1:06:43 for a 5th place finish in the male race, followed by Noah in 7th and Jasper in 11th.
After a rest day, the team was back in action on Wednesday, August 10th for the mountain bike Team Relay event in which both the male and female teams performed well but not without some drama. The female team closed the day with a respectable 4th place finish behind Ontario (1st), Quebec (2nd) and Alberta (3rd) while the male team was podium bound with the third fastest time, only to be informed that they had been disqualified. The Quebec team won gold, Ontario silver, and Nova Scotia eventually ended up with the bronze. In a post on social media, Team BC rider, Jasper Fleming, explains the reason for the disqualification, “During my leg, I had almost washed out on a berm causing me to go through the tape, but a volunteer told me to just cut right back in and keep going, so that’s exactly what I did. But, unfortunately, that small mistake wasn’t going to fly with the OC and our team got pulled.”
Down but not out, the team would bounce right back into action for the final day of mountain bike racing on Friday, August 12th for the Sprint event. There were no BC riders on the podium in the female race as Marin, Maddi, and Geza finished in 7th, 9th, and 16th, respectively. The male race saw Team BC’s Noah Rubuliak win the bronze medal, while Quebec riders took home the gold and silver. Cam and Jasper finished in 7th and 14th, respectively.
Podium performances bookending the mountain bike events of the 2022 Canada Summer Games added to an already unforgettable experience that Team BC athletes, coaches, staff, family and friends will cherish for the rest of their lives.
A big congratulations go out to the athletes who have trained long and hard to get to this level and to their support network that has been there along the way.
The 2022 Canada Summer Games will continue through to Sunday, August 21st, including road cycling races on August 16th (Time Trial), 18th (Road Race), and Criterium (20th).
