June 17/08 10:45 am - Morgan Construction Devon Grand Prix 2008

Posted by Editoress on 06/17/08
 

Morgan Construction Devon Grand Prix 2008
Bruce Copeland - Juventus Cycling Club

The Devon Grand Prix 2008 was held from June 13 - 15/08 and attracted over 210 riders from Alberta and Saskatchewan competing for over $6500 in prize money. The race consisted of 4 stages: 400 meter sprints Friday night, a 32 km ITT on Saturday morning to warm the legs up, a fast 4 corner criterium Saturday night and a 110 km road race on Sunday morning with 2 KOMs for omnium points. Sixteen U17 and U15 riders competed in a shortened Saturday morning ITT and a Saturday afternoon criterium. Even with threatening skies on all three days, the racers managed to stay dry and reasonably warm although wind was a factor in the ITT and the road race stages. The final results were calculated on an omnium basis.

In the U15/U17 races, Samuel Beaudoin from Juventus showed great form with a second in the ITT and a first in the criterium to claim the overall win. Dan Rosichuk from Velocity Cycle finished second in the overall and Adam Todd (Juventus) a close third.

Cat 5 was a close affair with 10 points separating the top 5 but Ryan Pederson (Velocity) with consistent top placing netted him the overall win over Gerhard Jacobs ( Crankies ) and Geoff Rackette (Velocity).

Ben Adams (United Cycle) showed excellent form soloing to a win in the cat 4 road race, picking up most of the KOM points along the way and capping the overall win over sprint ace Ty Andrews (Team Alberta/Bowcycle) and Mark Ruttiman (Pedalhead Roadwork's).

The junior riders from the Team Alberta Abitibi Team used the Cat 3 event for training and building teamwork. The hard work and talent showed with Justin Middleton (Team Alberta/Juventus) taking stage wins in the sprints and the road race and second in the criterium for the overall win. Alex Shaw (Speed Theory) took the ITT on the way to second overall and Alex McCormick (Team Alberta/Juventus) took third overall with third in the ITT, a criterium stage win and 5th in the road race.

The Woman's field pitted pursuit star Tara Whitten (Velocity) against XC oriented Mical Dyck (Terrascape/Trek) and Pepper Harlton (Juventus) and roadies Heather Kay (ERTC) and Andrea Bunnin (Team Sask). Tara's power proved too much as she took 3rd in the sprints, a ITT stage win and a road stage win for the overall victory and $600 cash. Pepper road a good ITT and took the sprints with pair of thirds in the crit and the road race for second overall. Heather Kay had consistent results in all stages and a close 2nd in the road race for 3rd overall.

Category 1-2 had a good field 46 riders with Team H and R Block having the numerical advantage over the other teams. In the sprints, the pairing of Cody Canning (ERTC/Revolution) and Shaun Adamsom (Juventus/RVC/Kona) proved to have the fastest time of the night. In the ITT, Bruce Copeland (Juventus/RVC/Kona) had the fastest time by a minute over Gideon Krishtalka (H and R Block) in second but neither were eligible for omnium points leaving Cyrus Kangarloo (H and R Block) with the third fastest time to take maximum points for the ITT. In the 40 minute criterium, the attacks and counters went continuously but nothing stuck leaving Mark Bomhoff (United Cycle) to outsprint Jeff Bolstad (H and R Block) for the stage win. In the road race, a small group broke away from the main group before the first KOM and from that Tim Heemskirk (United Cycle) and Taylor Little (United Cycle) went clear. The pair had a gap of up to 2 _ minutes over the chase group but the duo was caught at 500 meters by the group with another chase group closing up rapidly. At the line it was Jeff Bolstad taking the sprint over Marc Bomhoff. After trading stage wins it came down to points from the Friday sprints and Marc's 4th place netted him two more points than Jeff's 6th, just enough for the overall win. Team H and R Block's Mark MacDonald had consistent results in all stages to take third on the omnium.

The second annual Devon Grand Prix was a resounding success and raised over $1000 for the Devon Youth Drop In Center. Juventus Cycling Club would like to than our sponsors including the Morgan Construction, River Valley Cycle, the Town of Devon, Devon Chevrolet, Devon IGA and Brother's Sports for their contributions to the event. Thanks also to the Devon Legion Ladies Auxiliary who provided an excellent post race bbq steak dinner. A final thank you to the ABA staff and commissaries plus co-organizer Time Brewster for making this event runs so smoothly.

Full Results