17 Years of Paris-to-Ancaster

For the first time since I started entering cycling events  and races, I decided not to enter the Ontario Spring Classic, Paris to Ancaster.  I had entered P2A every year since 2002, for a streak of 17 years.  These 17 years included several times when I was recovering from concussions and I entered the shorter version of the race. This blog post is a statistical and photographic summary of my 17-year history

When my race ended in 2018, I swore I’d never do it again.  That’s not uncommon for me. The mud, cramps, hills wore me out every year, regardless of distance, weather, fitness, conditions.  However, after 2018, it felt different. Despite 17 straight years in this wonderful event, there was no spark.  Maybe because I’d “been there, done that”.  There was a small part of me that wanted to keep my streak going, but it wasn’t enough to sign up when registration opened in late 2018.

And despite all the chatter online as the 2019 event approached, I still had no regrets about not signing up.  The only time I felt a bit of regret was on race day, when I followed the race online.  I missed the atmosphere, the cheers on the final climb and the satisfaction of completing a difficult event.  Still, however, I didn’t carry a lot of regret.

I’ve established a respectable history for this event.  Now it’s time to let others continue.  Here’s a quick summary of my 17 years of Paris-to-Ancaster, in numbers and photos:

•  2002:
• • Distance: 60 km
• • Time: 2:59:35, place: 466 overall
• • Winner: Mathieu Toulouse, time: 1:52:42
• 2003:
• • Distance: 58.5 km
• • Time: 2:39:57, place: 466 overall (again!)
• • Winner: Seamus McGrath, time: 1:40:44
• 2004:
• • Distance: 58 km
• • Time: 3:01:37, place: 410 overall
• • Winner: Peter Morse, time: 1:59:11
• 2005:
• • Distance: 62 km
• • Time: 2:40:57, place: 432 overall
• • Winner: Michael Simonson: 1:46:42
• 2006:
• • Distance: 60 km
• • Time: 3:10:08, place: 652 overall
• • Winner: Michael Simonson: 1:55:37
• 2007:
• • Distance: 61.5 km
• • Time: 3:05:13, place: 757 overall
• • Winner: Peter Morse: 1:48:02
• 2008:
• • Distance: 62 km
• • Time: 3:08:14, place: 705 overall
• • Winner: Nathan Chown: 1:53:50
• 2009: St. George to Ancaster
• • Distance: 38 km
• • Time: 1:59:41, place: 106 overall
• • Winner: Karsten Madsen: 1:20:54 (winner of P2A: Jeremy Powers)
• 2010: St. George to Ancaster
• • Distance: 38 km
• • Time: 1:34:59, place: 55 overall
• • Winner: Sean Van Dongen: 1:16:44 (winner of P2A: Mike Garrigan)
• 2011: St. George to Ancaster
• • Distance: 38 km
• • Time: 2:15:39, place: 181 overall
• • Winner: Jody Brown: 1:24:55 (winner of P2A: Mike Garrigan)
• 2012:
• • Distance: 60 km
• • Time: 3:20:29, place: 819 overall
• • Winner: Mike Garrigan: 1:48:23
• 2013:
• • Distance: 58.2 km
• • Time: 2:51:03, place: 647 overall
• • Winner: Justin Lindine: 1:43:17
• 2014:
• • Distance: 63.4 km
• • Time: 3:03:22, place: 652 overall
• • Winner: Anthony Clark: 1:54:31
• 2015::
• • Distance: 68.8 km
• • Time: 3:02:28, place: 686 overall
• • Winner: Jeremy Martin: 2:00:57
• 2016:
• • Distance: 68.1 km
• • Time: 2:54:55, place: 773 overall (blog report here)
• • Winner: Gunnar Holmgren: 2:02:15
• 2017: Harrisburg to Ancaster
• • Distance: 37.4 km
• • Time: 2:30:12, place: 407 (blog report here)
• • Winner: James Hedgecock: 1:27:46 (Winner of P2A: Gunnar Holmgren: 2:08:17)
• 2018:
• • Distance: 73.3 km
• • Time: 3:46:16, place: 1035 (blog report here)
• • Winner: Gunnar Holmgren: 2:14:43