Well what can you say? The weather, the atmosphere, the level of dedication from the volunteers and the enthusiasm of the racers all contributed to a fantastic third annual Tour of University Heights Race.

The morning saw 150+ City of Toronto Youth from participate in their own version of the Ontario Cup Youth Series. They competed in a hotly contested time trial and followed that up with a road race in their respective categories. While some of these kids have only ridden a bike around the local neighbourhood and some were on a bike for only the 3^rd or 4^th time, you could see that with the right leadership, some of these kids have potential.  Just seeing the smiling faces of the City of Toronto kids was enough for many of the volunteers and afternoon racers to know that what they were seeing was life altering for some of these kids.

After the Toronto kids finished racing it was time for the Open race. This race featured many of Ontario's top riders including Jet Fuel's Peter Morse, Planet Energy's Ryan Roth, Bikyle/MazurCoaching.com's Mark Walters, Devon Novakowski of Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault and many more.

This race was fast paced from the start and some team tactics were evident from the Jet Fuel Coffee and Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault teams early on. However when it all came down to it this race was about the $1000 grand prize up for grabs and when the riders heard that bell lap they put down as hard as they could to capture top spot. In the end it was Peter Morse of Jet Fuel Coffee taking the top spot with Walters second and Novakowski edging out Wheels of Bloor rider Kevin Davis for third. It was an exciting race for both the Toronto kids who had just competed to watch and the Ontario youth who were about to take centre stage.

Following the Open Race the Ontario youth prepared for their time trial. Many of the series regular's were on hand as well as riders from the Ottawa region and with a total attendance of 54, this was one of the largest youth series races to date.

The Ontario youth set out to tackle the time trial first and the talk was about Brady Lee and his impressive 10+ second victory in the Peewee Boys Time Trial. In fact 3 St. Catharines Cycling Club riders took home first place in the TT with Lee, Jessica Tripp (Cadet Girls) and Brady's brother Campbell (Squirt) all taking the top spot. Esteemtraining.com was also out in full force for this event and had many top 3 finishes in the TT including:

Squirt Boys:

2^nd- Jacob Howitt

3^rd- Joseph Bacci

Peewee Boys:

2^nd- Rune Schaefer

Minime Boys:

2^nd- Conner Rapus

Squirt Girls:

2^nd- Charlotte Creswicke

Peewee Girls:

2^nd- Farleigh Creswicke

With the time trial completed, the road race stood in between a podium finish and possible championship jersey for many riders. The intensity of the road race picked up from the start and many close finishes capped off a terrific day of racing.

Below are your 2009 TOUH General Classification Champions:

For full results please check out the results section by clicking here