Sports - Ski to Sea

POSTED: Friday, May. 22, 2009

The Bagelry beat defending champs, confusion in strange 2008 race

The 2008 Ski to Sea was like no other race in the 35-year history of the race. Most race organizers and competitors probably hope that they don't see another race like it for another 35.

The only team sure to dispute that is The Bagelry, which was declared the overall winner after some finish-line confusion.

On a day that saw the race committee cancel the canoeing leg because of dangerously high water levels and speeds on the Nooksack River and shorten the kayaking leg by approximately two miles because of strong afternoon winds kicking up white caps on Bellingham Bay, it seemed only fitting that the team that rang the bell at the finish line second was actually the race winner.

The team that rang it first - defending champion Clippercanoes.com - finished third according to Ski to Sea's electronic scoring system, which ultimately had the last say.

"Everything actually went just about the way it was supposed to," Race Director Pete Coy said nearly 11 months after last year's race. "We had a plan in place for what should happen if the river became unsafe, and we executed it. The only problem was there was a glitch in the timing system that made it difficult for us to get the times out of Riverside Park in Everson to the start of the mountain biking leg. That glitch didn't kill us, but it made for a little confusion at the finish line."

When Coy saw rivers in King County swelling to unsafe levels early last May, he quickly had the race committee develop a strategy for what would happen should the snowpack in the North Cascades melt quickly and start flooding into the Nooksack. It was determined that mountain bikers would be released onto the course in Ferndale two hours after their team's road biker had arrived at the exchange point in Everson.

Though Clippercanoes.com was nearly seven minutes behind at the end of the road biking leg, mountain biker David Kvick was turned loose only two minutes behind The Bagelry's Adam Schwind.

Clippercanoes's Ian Mackenzie ended up catching and passing The Bagelry's Jeff Hilburn on the kayaking leg and was the first to ring the bell in Marine Park.

But when all the leg times were combined, the glitch that had allowed for Clippercanoes' early release on the mountain biking leg was corrected. The Bagelry, racing in the Open Division for the first time, turned in a winning time of 5 hours, 29 minutes, 26.7 seconds, almost six minutes in front of Clippercanoes' 5:35:17.3.

Barron Heating finished second for the second straight year with a time of 5:31:49.4.

"The system worked itself out, and the right team won," Coy said. "The timing company - Milliseconds - has found what happened at Riverside Park last year, and they have taken steps to make sure that doesn't happen again ... Last year was their first year with us, and I think they were a little blown away by our event. They have learned what it's all about, and we are confident that they'll be ready this year."

Coy wishes he could make the same promise for the conditions on the river and on the bay, but the weather is a little out of the race committee's control.

But Coy said he is still comfortable with last year's race day decision to cancel one leg and shorten another.

"We put the right people in the right place to make the right decision," Coy said. "It was not a decision that was made for the top teams. I have no doubt that the top teams could have made it safely through those conditions. We made the decision out of concern for the recreation division teams, who had competitors going out there that didn't have that much experience. Those are the people we needed to make that decision for."

In the Competitive Female Division, Boundary Bay Brewery won its eighth straight title with a time of 6:03:40.6, while Beavers Tree Service won the Whatcom County Open Division in 5:41:58.2.