Picture Toronto, the nation’s biggest concrete jungle with more skyscrapers than nature trails, and you’d be forgiven for not immediately pinning the city as an ideal setting for rugged, outdoorsy sports.
David Wright, founder of U of T’s mountain biking club, is the first to admit that downtown T.O. “isn’t exactly the Mecca of mountain biking.” But despite this shortcoming, the small biking group Wright started five years ago at U of T has grown into a popular varsity team. It continues to forge new territory in the sport, helping other universities follow suit.
So how did all this go down?
As a frosh new to Toronto, Wright says he and a few friends wanted to start a club for people interested in biking and nature. Looking for a way to get some fresh air in the city, they discovered the Don Valley Trail, and from there, the mountain biking club was born.
Interest grew, but as Wright explains, when the biking club started in 1997, “there was no such thing as Varsity level mountain biking in Canada.” U of T’s club took the initiative and founded the Ontario Mountain Biking Race Council. So far, 18 other universities have established similar clubs, benefiting from the establishment of the council and the network it’s created.
With so much interest in the sport, Wright and company decided it was time to up the ante and get competitive. Along came the series of four races, known as the University Cup (U-Cup) races, which take place in the fall across southern Ontario. So far, the U of T team has won the U-Cup four out of its five years.
Promoted to varsity status in 1999, Wright is still in awe over the team’s rapid success. “We tried to foster the whole philosophy of enjoying the outdoors more than racing,” he explains, “but something strange happened and some fantastic racers started to be developed…through the team [they’ve] since gone on to represent Canada at different races around the world.”
One of U of T’s success stories is Antonia Gawel, team president and men and women’s captain for the second year running. She joined the team in first year without any previous racing experience and has gone on to nab the gold this summer at the Canadian nationals in Whistler, BC. She placed fourth at the first U-cup event of the year on Sept. 20.
Gawel, however, is more concerned with team sustainability than personal success. As team president, her focus is building the team in the future. This season she is attempting to keep the team as streamlined and organized as possible, while also encouraging new people to come out.
Though the team has varsity status, Gawel stresses that mountain biking continues to remain a club on campus as well. Newcomers are still able to participate in the biking and activities, without the pressures of competition.
The team’s emphasis on having fun while simultaneously competing was a draw for second year team vet Alana Tintse. Tintse only started racing when she joined the team, but last week brought home the gold in the women’s B division race. A former varsity volleyball player, she comments that the mountain biking team has “a completely different atmosphere.” It’s competitive, like other teams, Tintse notes, but the pressure comes from the athletes themselves, and the emphasis is always on enjoying the sport.
Not only is the team still growing, attracting a record hundred plus people to the first meeting of the year, but the number of women coming out is also on the rise. Besides the non-intimidating environment, Tintse credits the influx of women in the traditionally male dominated sport to Gawel’s position as coach and president.
It only helps hammer home the balanced attitude that prevails in this varsity team/club, one that Wright sums up nicely. “We’re proud to see [the successes], but we’re just as proud to see the first year exchange student from China who’s never been in a forest before, smiling ear to ear, enjoying the great outdoors.”
