Winners of the 2021 Cycling BC Community Awards Announced 

Marin Lowe had an outstanding year of racing and has put herself into the spotlight as one of the strongest Canadian Juniors in XC mountain biking. Marin was chosen as the Junior Female Sportsperson of the year not only for her great achievements on the bike but also for her exceptional attitude and commitment towards the sport and the cycling community. Marin is our 2021 Canadian National and BC Provincial Champion in U17 XC mountain biking and has her goals set on qualifying for the Olympics with support from the RBC Training Ground program. Marin has been described by the cycling community as humble, friendly, passionate, and a great young representative of BC. We are excited to see what the future holds for Marin as a young rider with endless amounts of potential to achieve great things.

Jackson Goldstone’s first year as a Junior in Downhill MTB is one to be noted. In 2021, he brought home the World Championship title, Canadian National title, and the Jr. UCI MTB World Cup overall title as well. Jackson’s quick rise to fame in the sport has been inspirational and has made the BC cycling community very proud to see one of our own competing and crushing it on the international stage. Within the cycling community, Jackson is known to be very humble and one of the kindest people at any race and with his busy race schedule, he still had the time to compete at many local BC Cup events. Jackson has achieved so much as a junior DH rider and has a very promising future in the sport.

Casey Brown has been a long-standing professional female athlete in the Downhill MTB scene. She has regularly competed at the UCI DH World Cup and is our current Female Canadian National DH Champion. It came as a surprise to many seeing Casey compete at a Downhill event as she hasn’t competed in DH since 2015 and she proved to everyone that she is still a force to be reckoned with by securing the 2021 National title. Since 2015, Casey has shifted her focus to freeride and has created her own exclusive women’s freeride event with the goal of bringing more women to the sport and creating more opportunities for them to be comfortable showing their style on the bike.

Michael Van Den Ham is a Cyclocross and Gravel athlete and has claimed the Canadian National Championship in Cyclocross multiple times. He has represented Canada on many occasions on the UCI Cyclocross World Cup circuit and at World Championships. You can also find him at many local races across BC showing support and competing. Michael has been a very active member in the local cycling community and is a great representative of what being an Elite Sportsperson is for Cycling BC.

Esta Bovill is an avid BC cyclist and is known for always testing the limits on her bike. In 2021, Esta set a national record for “Everesting” on her bike by riding up and down from the Cleveland Dam to the Grouse Mountain parking lot 72 times for 11 hours straight. She now holds the record in the Everesting Hall of Fame for the fastest female climb to complete the challenge.

Donald Van Eesteren is an active member of the downhill community and can always be found competing at the BC Cup or supporting his daughter Lucy crushing it in the junior category. Donald is a strong Master DH racer and the 2021 BC Cup overall winner in the Masters 55+ category. When Donald makes the podium, he always remembers to bring a beer for him and his fellow recipients to cheers as they celebrate their victory.

Ted Tempany is a famous trail builder in BC and internationally. He has built many world-famous MTB trails in BC’s backyard. Ted has dedicated many hours of his life building and volunteering on the trail network in BC and has given the BC MTB community world-renown trails to experience and hone their skills on. Big Red Ted, as some people know him as, is responsible for the creation of the Half Nelson, which is famously known for being the best Trail in the world by Trailforks.com, as well as many other awesome trails such as the Full Nelson, Panda Connector, Cake Walk and many more. Although Ted runs his own trail-building company, he has put forward many hours of his own time towards maintaining these trails and ensuring they are in peak conditions for all athletes to enjoy year-round. Ted deserves the recognition of being one of BC’s best trail building volunteers in the cycling community.

Hans Loeffelholz is a coach that has touched the lives of many young athletes and is responsible for getting out record numbers in many female youth categories on the Track. Hans has dedicated countless hours to the Burnaby Velodrome leading various track events and programs for people of all ages to build their skills on the track. He has been a vital part of keeping the Burnaby Velodrome running during the pandemic and is a key contributor to bringing in young riders and training them for Provincial champs and the Western Track Challenge. Hans hosted the Provincial Track Champs and made a huge push to ensure that provincials ran in 2021 despite the pandemic. He was able to get out large numbers to compete in each category and notably had many young female athletes competing and filling the start lists. Hans has had a major impact on the velodrome and has taken another step by providing more opportunities for BIPOC youth to be more recognized and represented on the track by implementing and maintaining a BIPOC youth track cycling program dedicated to helping young BIPOC athletes succeed on the track by minimizing the barriers to compete and learn.

Gary Leung has accepted more than his fair share of assignments in 2021. He worked XC Provincials, DH BC Cups, many road and CX races, and was chief commissaire at road provincials. Always one to put his hand up to come out and help, Gary stepped up on numerous occasions in 2021 when commissaires were short-handed due to travel restrictions and natural disasters. He’s very professional, organized, a strong leader and is known for keeping calm in stressful situations. He is always approachable at events and to the best of his abilities, makes sure each event is run fairly and smoothly.

Stephen Exley is a beloved member of the DH community because of his dedication to bringing high level events and competition to BC. In 2021, during a pandemic, Stephen did the unthinkable and not only held a series with record-breaking registration numbers, but also grouped all three events into one week, creating the first “DH Superweek” in BC. The Dunbar Summer Series, as described by many local DH riders, was THE event of the year in the cycling community and had a large impact on each local host community. Stephen has always been known to put on exciting events and bring great competition to BC. He went above and beyond in 2021 and is a well-deserving recipient of the Community Organizer award.

Elizabeth Gin is a young Road, Track and Cyclocross athlete riding for InstaFund LaPrima Cycling. She was chosen for Adventure Rider of the year as she is known for always taking on any crazy adventure on her bike. For Elizabeth, the gnarlier the trail or route, the better. Elizabeth has an insatiable enthusiasm for finding new trails and pushing herself to always discover new adventures on her bike no matter the circumstance. If you ever find yourself on a ride with Elizabeth, just be aware that you may end up scaling up the side of the mountain on a steep technical trail for no reason but to discover a new adventure.

Magnus is a young Downhill MTB racer who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Rather than letting it beat him down, he fought back. He planned and executed a Conquer Your Challenge fundraiser and amidst his fight with cancer, he also set a goal to ride up and down 3 mountains—in one day. Not only did he accomplish his goal—he did it in between his bi-monthly chemo treatments. Magnus raised $20,000 from the Conquer Your Challenge fundraiser and donated all the proceeds to the Steve Smith Legacy Foundation. Magnus is an inspiration to us all and is beyond worthy of receiving this year’s Adversity Award.

Ryan Cousineau is a treasure in the cycling community and has once again done something only Ryan would think of. In 2021, Ryan brought the road cycling community an epic event that gave cyclists in the lower mainland an opportunity to race around the PNE grounds. The WTNC Roller Coaster Crit at the PNE was a huge success and possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity for cyclists. With the PNE grounds being closed due to the pandemic, Ryan thought of a great idea to hold not one, but two crit races on the PNE grounds. The event brought many riders out and created a great environment for families and athletes to experience. Ryan has always been an active member of the road cycling community and continues to bring us exciting and fun events. If you ever find yourself at a Ryan Cousineau event, be prepared to experience something fun, exciting and unique.

Jackson Goldstone, who is also our Junior Male Sportsperson of the Year, has achieved something that very few Canadians have ever done. In his first year as a Junior DH rider, he has been crowned the Jr. Canadian National Champ, the Jr. UCI Downhill World Champion, and the DH World Cup overall winner. Jackson won the 2021 World Cup series by stepping up to the podium in each of the six events in the series including three times on the top step as the first-place finisher. Jackson not only puts up fast times within his category but has been found to put extremely fast times that are competitive within the Elite Men’s category as well. He is described as a generational talent and he has already proven to be one of the best Canadian Downhill riders with his impressive achievements in 2021.

Charge BC XC Racing is a youth high performance team for Cross Country MTB. They were chosen as the Trade Team of the Year for their support of youth racing and their impressive results in 2021. They are a smaller but mighty team that brought three provincial titles home and sent one of their athletes to the UCI MTB World Cup. Charge BC XC Racing is making a name for themselves in the MTB community and we are excited to see how their athletes do in 2022.

Tripleshot Cycling is a club based in Victoria that supports riders of all disciplines. They are known for also supporting adaptive riders and being inclusive to all. They encourage individuality while making each member proud to be a part of something bigger. Managed by volunteers, they promote fair play and the simple pleasure of riding together as a community. Throughout Covid, they have inspired confidence and been a beacon to all of us and found often creative ways to help us each stay connected and engaged described by a member. Tripleshot has been a large supporter of giving back to the community and their diverse group of members has allowed them to be a part of many impactful fundraisers and help raise awareness for many different organizations and causes.

The Dunbar Summer series organized by our 2021 Community Organizer of the Year, Stephen Exley, was described above as the “Event of the year”. The Downhill event was organized and ran in the middle of a pandemic while abiding by all the Covid-19 restrictions and still managed to bring in record registration numbers with 300 plus registrants to each of the three events and over 1000 registrations in total. The three events in the series (Fernie, Panorama, and Kicking Horse) all ran within a 10-day time period and was named the “DH Superweek” in BC. The Dunbar series received great reviews from all the athletes, volunteers, teams, spectators and sponsors as they provided an exciting and safe event for all.

Corsa Cycles was voted by the community as bike shop of the year. They are a bike shop located in Vancouver and Squamish and serve bikes of all kinds, ranging from Road to MTB. This was the only category in the Community Awards that was determined by a popular vote.