Riders dip and dive during Crank the Shield at Sir Sam’s

By Terrance Gavan

Photo by terrance Gavan - PTE - great day for racing at sir sam's 

Shake, rattle and roll baby.

   Elvis has left the building.

   On a full-smush Trek Enduro.

   Don’t step on those Blue Suede Shoes y’all.

   Make no mistake, the Haliburton Highlands is rapidly becoming a first class destination for mountain bikers, weekend warriors and stellar sanctioned mountain bike races.

   Last Sunday morning some 290 colorfully clad riders revved up for the final stage of the now famous, infamous and unanimously transcendent Crank the Shield mountain bike race.

   Three days of Hell. Heaven. And for some … Limbo.

   The racers left Sir Sam’s parking lot at 9:30 am sharp and headed for the top o’ the hill; a challenging dipsy doodle up bunched up an old logging trail; and then down  the back side of the front side of the intricate system of trails laid out all over the ski runs at Sir Sam’s Ski and Summer Resort.

   Last weekend Sir Sam’s played host to the start of Crank the Shield stage three; including a pretty scary jaunt down the Python Run, followed by another delightful uphill on Kingston Road; and then a harrowing exit from the back side of trails hewn through the woods and over the rocky detritus of a long ago glacial expectorant, which occurred well before Sarah Palin proclaimed carbon dating, Neanderthal man and the ice age a fools fancy.

   Don’t tell that to 290 cyclists who flew down the dirty backside of Sir Sam’s.

   They’ll tell you to a man that the devil had a hand in this crusty layout, and it took billions of years – not seven days - to manhandle and mismanage the landscape to this fluctuating perfection.

   You don’t ever beat the Canadian Shield.

   You hold tight on your handlebars, you rely on instinct, close your eyes and – a paean to Sarah Tea Party here – you Pray, just a bit.

   Dave Webb, ski school director, summer events organizer and the congenial  host for this first ever visit of Crank the Shield to Sir Sam’s was up at five am.

   He was like a kid at Christmas.

   “This is great for the Resort, but even greater for the Highlands,” said Webb.

   Their website descriptor says that it’s generally regarded as Eastern North America's most challenging and popular mountain bike stage race. Excellent accommodations, superb food choices, and some of the best mountain biking Eastern Canada has to offer. 

   In fact many mountain bikers with international experience agree that Crank The Shield is one of the nicest stage races in the world, and just maybe one of the toughest.

   Racers spent Saturday night at Camp White Pine and all sections of the race imbibed in the convivial and challenging terrain in and around the county.

   A sure sign, says Webb, that event organizers are tweaking to the unique wonders of the area and the challenging aspects of the terrain.