Van den Ham repeats as Canadian 'cross champion

Michael van den Ham (Garneau Easton) successfully defended his Elite men's title at the Canadian Cyclo-cross Championships on Saturday, in Peterborough, Ontario, holding off a late race surge by five-time champion Geoff Kabush (Yeti Maxxis Shimano).

After snow and rain the previous day, riders woke to sun and bitterly cold winds on race day, taking the windchill value to -8C, with blowing snow squalls thrown in for good measure.

The 2015 national champion Raphael Gagne (Silverback-OMX) had his usual fast start to get the holeshot, with van den Ham chasing along with Kabush and Marc-Andre Fortier (Pivot-OTE). Van den Ham got a gap on the other two chasers to get by Gagne first, with the other two also passing the early leader. Kabush was steadily closing on van den Ham through the final laps, but couldn't quite manage to close the gap, finishing six seconds back, with Fortier taking the bronze medal.

"The track was changing all the time," said van den Ham. "The sun would come out and it would start to thaw, and then it would get cloudy and start to freeze again ... so the conditions were changing throughout the day. All you could do was show up, race the course and see what happens. I knew Raph [Gagne] would have a fast start, but I was pretty confident I could bring him back. I think it played to my advantage because Geoff [Kabush] is a fast finisher, so getting that gap was key to holding him off at the end. It stung a bit [losing the Pan Am title last weekend], so I'm very happy to have pulled this off."

Full Results

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#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Michael Van Den Ham (Can) Garneau-Easton p/b Transitions Lifecare0:59:56
2Geoff Kabush (Can)0:00:06
3Marc Andre Fortier (Can)0:01:49
4Raphael Gagne (Can)0:02:37
5Peter Disera (Can)0:03:50
6Craig Richey (Can) Garneau-Easton P/B Transitions LifecareRow 5 - Cell 2
7Andrew L'Esperance (Can)0:04:02
8Trevor O'Donnell (Can)0:05:08
9Derrick St John (Can)0:05:24
10Marc Andre Daigle (Can)0:05:34
11Isaac Niles (Can)0:05:42
12David Yexley (GBr)0:05:48
13Osmond Bakker (Can)0:06:50
14Mathieu Belanger Barrette (Can)0:07:35
15Christian Ricci (Can)Row 14 - Cell 2
16Edward Walsh (Can)Row 15 - Cell 2
17Parker Bloom (Can)Row 16 - Cell 2
18Nathan Chown (Can)Row 17 - Cell 2
19Stephen Kirby (Can)Row 18 - Cell 2
20Eric Jeanotte (Can)Row 19 - Cell 2
21James Fedosov (Can)Row 20 - Cell 2
22Brenton Miller (Can)Row 21 - Cell 2
23Cameron Jette (Can)Row 22 - Cell 2
24Christopher Mitchell (Can)Row 23 - Cell 2
25Robert Meneguzzi (Can)Row 24 - Cell 2
26Alex Lefebvre (Can)Row 25 - Cell 2
27David Maltais (Can)Row 26 - Cell 2
28Brendan Matheson (Can)Row 27 - Cell 2
29Travis Samuel (Can)Row 28 - Cell 2
30Ben Andrew (Can)Row 29 - Cell 2
31Peter Morse (Can)Row 30 - Cell 2
32Andrew Bray (Can)Row 31 - Cell 2
33Mitch Harris (Can)Row 32 - Cell 2
34Eric Spinney (Can)Row 33 - Cell 2
35Joel Anderson (Can)Row 34 - Cell 2
36William Blackburn (Can)Row 35 - Cell 2
37Terry Mckall (Can)Row 36 - Cell 2
38Caelum Wishart (Can)Row 37 - Cell 2
39Miles Betteridge (Can)Row 38 - Cell 2
40Ryan Kent (Can)Row 39 - Cell 2
41Justin Minicola (Can)Row 40 - Cell 2
42Mark Lancia (Can)Row 41 - Cell 2
DNFAnton Varabei (Can)Row 42 - Cell 2
DNSPeter Glassford (Can)Row 43 - Cell 2

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