THUNDER BAY – Nearly four hours after he set out, Sean Fincham is a Canadian champion.
The Squamish, B.C. native was the lone cyclist to cross the finish line in under four hours, capturing the XCM Nationals 90-kilometre race in 3:58:32.8 at Trowbridge Falls, winning the right to wear the maple leaf for the first time next season.
Forty-two minutes later, Jennifer Jackson, who many in Thunder Bay may remember for her cross-country skiing exploits as a member of the National Team Development Centre squad, sped through the finish, winning her third Canadian women's title of 2024.
“It feels unreal,” said Fincham, who edged out his Maxxis Factory Racing teammate – and last year’s champion – Andrew L’Esperance, to claim the title.
“Honestly, I’m super stoked. I can’t believe it happened. It’s my first marathon national championships and my first win.”
It was a tough course, he added.
“These marathon races, it’s like a bit of a war. You slowly grind going down and you just keep punching and punching and eventually it sticks and people start to wear out. You just have to keep hitting it and hitting it and people fall off.”
For much of the first half of the race, Fincham found himself part of the pack, battling a group of three other riders for position on the course.
He wound up besting L’Esperance by more than 90 seconds, the 2023 champion coming in at 4:00:09.9, about 20 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Tyler Orschel.
Jackson, a two-time national champion cross-country cyclist, and the 2023 cross-country gold medalist at the 2023 Pan American Games, said winning at Trowbridge was extra special, given her four-year residency in Thunder Bay during the height of a skiing career that took her to a pair of world championships.
“It’s kind of a home away from home. The people here are so familiar,” Jackson said.
“It’s been a really international year of racing. We started the year in South America and I’ve been racing in Europe and on the east coast of Canada. It’s been such a cool mix of events, between World Cup and national championships. I won the short-track in cross-country Olympic in Kentville, a month-and-a-half ago.
“I put this race on my bucket list. The timing worked out amazing to come back to Thunder Bay and do a triple.”
Jackson, 29, said familiarity with the course helped immensely on Saturday.
“I had a sense of the technicality and the flow of the trails and I know it’s not easy. I just needed to pace the early laps and sit in with the other girls, and then once I started to feel like I could kind of see the end, with only a couple of hours to go, which sounds crazy, I just tried to make some moves on the single track.”
It worked out well for Jackson, who now calls Duncan, B.C. home.
She completed three laps of the course in 4:40:47.6, to best second-place finisher Laurie Arsenault, by just under 11 minutes. Haley Smith, who won the 2023 event, was third, 1:13 behind Arsenault.
In the 60-kilometre event, Peter MacGregor took the men’s title, finishing in 3:10:02.2, while Christine McKinley was tops in the women’s division with a time of 3:49:44.8.
In the challenge races, Landon Kates and Brenna Kompon won the male and female divisions, respectively. In the 15-kilometre event, Braden Fisher and Abigail Skomoroh were crowned champions, and in the 27-kilometre race, it was Nicholas Randall and Kristen Vidlak who came out on top.
