Sudbury cyclist Alex Mailloux highlights loaded local sports roundup

The search for Treasure Trove content is seldom easier than it is at this time of year, with the start of the season in countless sports providing ample fodder for column content.

Beyond those predictable sources, however, comes the one-offs as local athletes continue to excel in a variety of venues.

At this point, 19-year-old Alex Mailloux is reticent to suggest that his pathway will be purely forged in either of the road cycling circuit or on the mountain bike trails. Last August, the longtime local mountain bike aficionado found himself at a high point on the roads, capturing the provincial title in the U19 men’s division at the Ontario Road Race Championships in Cobourg.

“At the start of the (2026) season, I was training on my road bike, because I had aspirations to do well in that,” Mailloux said.

And while the results were certainly not terrible, there was not enough meat on that bone to justify some late-season cracks in some mountain bike events — and specifically, the endurance marathon races that comprise the Life Time Grand Prix series.

Earlier this month, Mailloux finished seventh in a field of more than 1,000 cyclists, tackling the 40-mile trek from Hayward to Cable, Wisc., as part of the 2026 Chequamegon MTB. Much like his own personal tug-of-war between road cycling and mountain biking, the race itself was something of a roller coaster ride.

“From the start, I had to make up ground and had to burn a match to get there,” said Mailloux, alluding to the limited number of times in any given race that a cyclist can make a single high-intensity run at a group that is ahead of them. “I was in that front group for a while, but the pace was going too hard, and I fell back to the second group.

“Ten kilometres later, everything came back together — but halfway through the race, with the climbs and everything, it exploded again, and I found myself in the second group and rolled with that to the finish line.”

Still, his time of 2:24:22.40 was just over three minutes back of a lead quartet that included fellow M14-29 competitor Caden Budd from Wisconsin, with Mailloux finishing behind only the category champion and Andrew Shuros from Minnesota, who out-sprinted him at the end.

Spurred on by this encouraging result, Mailloux will travel Stateside next month, tackling Little Sugar MTB on Oct. 11 and Big Sugar Gravel on Oct. 17, both in Arkansas, in the hope of earning a berth at the prestigious Leadville 100 in Colorado.

“I wanted to do well and knew I could do well,” he said.

“I had rode mountain bike a lot, so I was pretty confident. My skills were still there.”

Week 2 of SDSSAA senior football action was to see a triple-header of games set for James Jerome Sports Complex on Friday, with players, fans and coaches alike taking in all that was the Week 1 results highlighted by a 42-42 tie between the defending-champion Confederation Chargers and the up-and-coming St. Charles College Cardinals.

Yet for as much as Confederation is likely not as vaunted as it was in 2025, perhaps more vulnerable to the upset, there is solace to be taken in the form of a junior Chargers unit that sits at 2-0 and shares the top spot with a St. Charles squad that ran all over the Lasalle Lancers on Thursday, with returning QB Brody Lepage at the helm.

“I started as a receiver (playing two years of Joe MacDonald Youth Football), but my friends told me to try out at QB,” Lepage said.

It certainly wasn’t as though the concepts were going to be foreign to him.

“At school, I would always play football at recess and always throw the ball around at camp.”

Which, as any experienced quarterback will suggest, still represents only one very small piece of the puzzle that would allow any given pivot the chance to be successful.

“In a game, you can’t see as much,” Lepage said. “It’s harder to see the field and scan it.

“But if you know the routes and know where your players will be, then it won’t be too bad.”

Lepage accounted for one of seven touchdowns St. Charles scored on Thursday, with Gaddiel Appiah-Hagan and Trent Maskevich adding two majors apiece and Ryker LeRoy and Mofe Olusola-Kuteyi capping things off.

Fresh off an appearance at the Minto Cup after starring with the Pickering Ironheads junior lacrosse team this summer, local goaltender Mason Robertson is now being projected to be drafted in the sixth round of the upcoming National Lacrosse League draft.

A Sock Trick Lacrosse Instagram bio of the longtime member of the Sudbury Rockhounds and stepson of former pro netminder Mike Miron read as follows: “Mason is a big, athletic, intelligent goaltender who reads the play well, tracks the ball effectively and uses his size and angles to make himself difficult to beat.

“His development over the past 12 months has been impressive. He provides a calm, dependable presence in the crease. His positive attitude and team-first mentality make him an excellent teammate.”

Finally, two new champions at the SDSSAA golf tournament Thursday at the Lively Golf Club as the tandem of Lia Gallo of Lo-Ellen and Camden Poirier of St. Charles followed in the footsteps of the graduated combo of Elliot Boyles of Marymount and Ryder Coe of Lockerby.

Poirier shot an impressive round of 72 to finish three shots clear of Peyton Goudreau (75), with Thaddeus Quesnele (76), Reese Keyes of Lively, Kaiden Major of Macdonald-Cartier and Cameron Bernstein of Lasalle (all at 79) next in line. With a score of 86, Gallo found herself eight shots clear of Sophie Larcher from St. Charles College, with all of the above among the local group heading to NOSSA next week at Huron Pines Golf at Country Club.

Treasure Trove, Randy Pascal’s local sports roundup, runs once a month in The Sudbury Star.