Earth Day Bike Ride Scheduled Sunday

To mark Earth Day, a coalition of environmental groups is hosting a fund-raising bike ride on the Newport Back Bay Sunday.

Funds from Anybody Can Bike the Back Bay will go toward educating the public about protecting the Newport Beach watershed, said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Costa Mesa-based Earth Resource Foundation.

“Remember what happened in Huntington Beach last summer?” Barger said. “That is what we are trying to prevent from happening here in the Newport watershed. Eighty-five percent of water pollution comes from you and me. Until we change our habits, our beaches and waterways are going to be dirty.”

There are three routes for Sunday’s ride, two of five miles and one of 13. There is also a three-mile walking route. Registration is $5, but organizers ask participants to raise funds by getting pledges.

The event is being held in conjunction with an Earth Day fair from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Shellmaker Island near Newport Dunes.

For information, (949) 645-5163 or https://www.anybodycan.org.

BREAKING AWAY

Orange County-based Team Hansen’s/Canyon Velo won its eighth bicycling event in nine attempts this year in the Lance Armstrong Junior Olympic Series last weekend in Tucson.

The team’s four elite junior riders are aiming for spots on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and include Garrett Collins of Anaheim. Collins, a 17-year-old senior at Esperanza High, won the time-trial event at the Tucson Bike Classic Friday, completing the 2.1-mile course in 5 minutes 9 seconds. Collins’ father and the team director, Alex Collins, said his son’s time beat all but five professionals at the race.

Collins led a Canyon Velo sweep of the top three junior positions in the time trial. Teammates Johnny Terrones of Canyon Country, Kenan Kunstal of Santa Barbara and Robert Graham of Corona swept the road race Saturday. In the circuit race Sunday, Kunstal, Graham and Terrones swept. Collins, working to support his teammates, was fifth in both races.

IRONFOLKS

Mickie Shapiro of Costa Mesa won the women’s 60-64 age group at the Ironman Australian Triathlon Sunday in New South Wales. Shapiro, the only athlete in her age group to finish, was one of seven from Orange County to finish the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run. She finished in 15 hours 21 minutes 43 seconds, 1,174th of 1,175 finishers.

Jack Boyster of Laguna Beach finished 147th overall in 10:07:03 and fourth in the men’s 50-54 division. The others from Orange County with overall place and finishing times: Dana Point’s Kirk Matkin (747th, 11:35:43), Newport Beach’s Mike Sandoval (862nd, 11:57:06), Dana Point’s Kara Matkin (942nd, 12:21:58), Huntington Beach’s Rocky Stenico (986th, 12:37:17) and Huntington Beach’s Stephen Fraser (1,168th, 15:10:10).