July 19/08 2:18 am - Tour de White Rock: Prologue report, photos and full results

Posted by Editoress on 07/19/08
 

Tour de White Rock July 18th, White Rock BC

Photos by Greg Descantes

A couple of quick recoveries by Whistler’s Will Routley kept the hopes of a BC Superweek sweep alive for Symmetrics Pro Cycling as the Tour de White Rock kicked off with the grueling Homelife Hillclimb on Friday night.

Routley was second fastest up the leg melting 700-meter ascent from the White Rock beach to the top Buena Vista Avenue, trailing only Boulder, Colorado’s Kiel Reijnen of Team Waste Management, who finished the 16 per cent grade climb in one minute, 40.28 seconds. When the five fastest riders went head to head a second time up the big hill, Routley was well out in front of the pack as the sun settled majestically over a sparkling Semiahmoo Bay in the background.

Pocatello, Idaho’s Matt Shriver of the Jittery Joes Pro Cycling Team was third, ahead of Kelowna’s Chris Devries of Team H&R Block and Australian Shaun Morris from the Rubicon-ORBEA Team.

“Last year I did really good the first time up the hill and totally didn’t recover and didn’t go good the second time, so this makes up for that,” said Routley. “You’re not going to go as fast the second time. As soon as it got steep one of the guys kicked too early, so I just stayed on his wheel for another 30 second or so and then just went the last 45 seconds all out.”

It’s been an all-out two weeks for Routley, who went from riding the Canadian Championships two weekends ago, straight to the six-day Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon right through last weekend.

“I went from Nationals straight home, unpack, re-pack, down to Cascade, back just in time for Gastown, and still felt on form.”

He re-joined his Symmetrics teammates in time to see them follow up a clean sweep of the Tour de Delta last weekend with wins at the Tour de Gastown Wednesday and Giro di Burnaby Thursday. All Symmetrics needs to sweep BC Superweek are wins in Saturday’s Bosa Properties Criterium and Sunday’s Peace Arch News Road Race as the 29th Tour de White Rock continues.

“The team is riding unbelievable, the streak is going and I had to keep it up, I was the only guy in the top five,” Routley said.

Unlike last year, however, Routley had something left in the tank, finding that delicate balance between making sure he was in the top-five final, but not burning himself out entirely to get there.

“It’s a huge learning curve,” said Routley. “You have to push to be top-five and almost passing out at the top, but you’ve got to time it right. I’d say at least half the guys go too hard in the first half.”

It’s a lesson that Australia’s Ruth Corset learned the hard way in the women’s race.

Corset, of New Zealand’s Jazz Apple Cycling, easily posted the fastest time by more than eight seconds the first time up, conquering the steep hill in two minutes, 10 seconds. But Corset couldn’t hold off Vancouver’s Rachel McBride of West Point Cycles, who sprinted away to win the head-to-head race after originally posting the third-fastest time.

“I was a little disappointed,” McBride, just a third-year competitive cyclist and riding her first “big race,” joked of finding out she had to go up the grueling hill again after finishing among the top-five. “I was secretly happy of course, it’s a pretty good feeling to win and I’m pretty surprised I was able to hold my own on this.”

Ontario’s Natasha Elliott of EMD Sereno/Stevens also edged out Corset by a tire width at the line for second place. While McBride celebrated her first big win Corset, who won the Tour de Delta overall title last weekend and finished third at both the Tour de Gastown and Giro di Burnaby midweek, needed oxygen and a half hour of medical treatment after cramping badly.

“I may have an advantage because I haven’t been racing all week, so I’m on fresh legs,” said McBride, also a triathlete whose season was slowed because of an early foot injury. “I’m just really enjoying it and improving and getting more and more into the cycling races. But that’s a pretty awesome accomplishment to be able to hold my own amongst some pretty solid riders.”

The Tour de White Rock – the final event in the 10-day, eight-race BC Superweek – continues with the Bosa Properties Criterium Saturday and the Peace Arch News Road Race on Sunday.

Prologue: Homelife Hill Climb