July 26/04 8:19 am - Tour de Whiterock: Stage 3

Posted by Editoress on 07/26/04
 

Tour de White Rock

Stage 3: The Peace Arch News Road Race

Courtesy Eric Dwyer

Golden Ending To Silver Anniversary Of Tour De White Rock

Sara Neil left sentiment and Alison Sydor behind in the final 500 meters of the 80 km as she sprinted away to win the Tour de White Rock Peace Arch news road race for the 2nd time in her career. She also won the race in 1990. "This is my favourite race in the world," she said. "But I kept thinking this is the last time I have to do (the steep hill on) Columbia (street) and the last time I'll have to do that awful hill on Magdalen street. My legs were toast on that last climb but the crowd was cheering so loudly up there they gave me the extra energy to climb out of the saddle and go on to win the race."

At the awards ceremony she joked that she decided not to retire at all. She quickly added she was only kidding. She decided it's time to move on to over things including coaching and spending more time with her two children Emma and Alexa. Not even her superhuman BC Superweek total of two wins, 2 seconds, and 2 3rds in 7 races could change her mind. She did share the secret of youth that helped her win a SISU Cup as top rider in a 7 race series. "As you get older it takes longer to recover from racing and training. Before it would take me one day to recover. Now I take two days off."

Now she can take the rest of her life off and treat herself to an extra calorie sinful pleasure or two. "Yeah," she chuckles. "When I buy the kids a slurpee I can have one too."

The men's race was a breakaway battle with only one gambler emerging as the winner. Caleb Manion, an Australian racing for Jelly Belly beat Whistler's Will Routley of Symmetrics to the finish line to keep the Peace Arch Road Race trophy in the Jelly Belly family for another year. The breakaways came early with 8 men putting the hammer down and opening up a 35 second lead on the first of 17 laps. It was a daring gamble in a 134 km race on an exhausting, hilly course that most riders consider the toughest in North America. The men are buffeted by strong sea breezes as they race along Marine Drive and then climb up and down 4 steep hills 17 times in 17 laps before sprinting uphill to the finish line. Only 2 of the original 8 in the breakaway hung on to take the lead into the final lap. Will Routley of Symmetrics and Caleb Manion of Jelly Belly had a 20 second lead on the defending champion Ben Brooks who cramped up with 3 laps to go and had to drop out of the lead group. "I had a few too many beers last night and I paid for it," admitted Brooks, the fun-loving Aussie. "I'd already done all I could anyway. I told Caleb I'd work for him and keep the pace up to wear out everyone chasing us and then I left it up to him"

Manion came through by putting Routley away with a daring attack on the final climb. He widened his lead on the descent down Victoria Avenue and had a comfortable lead turning into the final home stretch to post one of his biggest wins of the year.

"This is one of the toughest courses we race," confirmed Manion. "It was harder than I thought. I hurt a lot and didn't have as much left as I thought at the end. I'm glad he didn't have anything left either."

Routley took 2nd giving his Symmetrics team of BC riders five riders on the podium in the three stages of the Tour de White Rock. Kirk O'Bee of Navigators, an American now living in Vancouver took 3rd. A 4th place finish by Sean Dawson gave him the men's title in the final SISU BC Cup standings, edging out Tsawwassen's Cam Evans who wound up 7th.

The Jelly Belly boys from down under promised they'll be back next year to try to make it 3 wins in a row. "Ben talked me into coming up here," said Manion. "He said everything up here was great and he was right. Beautiful weather, beautiful crowds and the racing was great. This is one of the best series around. I'll definitely be coming back here for a long time."


King of the Mountain: Ben Jacques-Maynes
1st up winner ($100): Andrew Pinfold