July 12/09 8:44 am - Tour de Delta: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 07/12/09
 

Anderson, Pinfold, Jazz Apple big winners at Tour de Delta Criterium

Ryan Anderson always wanted to get to the top of a BC Superweek podium.

The Vancouver-native picked a pretty good field of cyclists to do it against.

Riding for the Minneapolis-based Kelly Benefits Pro Cycling team, Anderson won a photo finish ahead Andrew Pinfold (Ouch Pro Cycling) and Tim Sherstobitoff (Total Restoration Cycling) at the Tour de Delta's Brenco Criterium on Saturday night.

“I've been doing BC Superweek for a few years now and always wanted to win one of them,” said Anderson, who finished third in Friday's MK delta Prologue, and will wear the leader's jersey in Sunday's Road Race. “I got close last night but this is an unreal feeling, the crowd here is unbelievable and that makes it super special.”

With fans standing five deep down the final straightaway after 60 laps around the 900-meter circuit, Anderson barely edged past Pinfold, his former teammate on Symmetrics, to take the win in one hour, 18 minutes and 36.2 seconds.

“I was a little nervous coming up on Pinner but I just put my head down and went for it,” said Anderson, 21, whose Kelly Benefits teammate Zach Bell finished seventh.

Despite finishing second, Pinfold was still a big winner after edging out ProTour rider Dominique Rollin (Cervelo TestTeam) by less than a wheel to win a sprint for the huge $2,500 crowd prime two laps earlier. Pinfold was also happy to see Ouch teammate Roman Kilun get up and resume racing a horrific crash midway through the race that knocked two-time US Champion Kirk O'Bee (Bissell Pro Cycling) out of action.

“Most of all I was just happy that Roman was OK,” said Pinfold, who won four races, including three of the four criteriums at last year's BC Superweek. “I was almost sick to my stomach when I saw that because normally you see crashes like that and people are getting taken away in ambulances. I saw him sitting up so thought maybe broken collar bone, and then we come around the next time he pops up in the group.”

Kilun, who flew 10 feet after O'Bee went down in front of him, even won a prime with nine laps to go. The big prime went to Pinfold seven laps later, but the real winners were local cycling fans that got to see one of the best field's ever at BC Superweek.

“I was impressed by how strong the guys were,” said Rollin, who finished fifth in his first competitive racing since Mono in late-April, and is using Tour de Delta to prepare for a return to Europe next week. “Before the crash we were averaging 47 or 48 kilometers an hour. That's a fast criterium, one of the fastest you can find.”

That pace – and the names setting it – made the podium sweeter for Sherstobitoff, a 24-year-old from Kelowna who also finished third behind Pinfold and ProTour rider Chris Horner at the Tour de White Rock criterium at last year's BC Superweek.

Sherstobitoff broke away down the backstretch of the final lap with Friday's Prologue winner, Will Routley (Jelly Belly) and stayed ahead until the final few meters.

“I was actually ahead going into the last corner,” said Sherstobitoff. “It was cool being on podium with Horner last year but this field, with the amount of strongmen out there like Dominique and those guys, it's just awesome being on the podium.”

Jazz Apple Cycling had that podium to themselves in the 40-lap women's race. The New Zealand-based team swept on Saturday, with Kiwi Lauren Ellis winning ahead of Dotsie Bausch, a two-time US National champion, and Vancouver's Steph Roorda.

Roorda was actually out alone with about 10 laps remaining, and stayed away for about five laps before finally being reeled in. Ellis and Bausch took over from there, breaking away with four laps left and staying away all the way to the finish line.

“Dotsie just yelled at me to go, so I just do what I'm told,” Ellis, 20, said of her 36-year-old teammate. “Me and Dotsie just tried to keep the pace up and take it to them and let it out and keep the pace nice and high to get the gap as big as possible.”

That gap was almost 20 seconds by the time Ellis, who won silver at the 2009 World Track Championships in Poland, and Bausch crossed the line. And when the rest of the field approached it, Roorda had enough left to win a bunch sprint for third place, giving the powerful Jazz Apple squad complete control of Saturday's podium.

“Steph got a really good break and we were really hoping she'd stay out there because we wanted her to get a win in her hometown,” Ellis said of Roorda, the lone Canadian on Jazz Apple. “And then when she got caught, I just happened to get on Dotsie's wheel and she just went for it and we worked really well together and stayed away. … Ultimately we wanted Steph to win the race but there's lots more racing left.”

Ellis also leads the Overall and Best Young Rider classifications ahead of Laura Brown (Local Ride Racing), who won the women's MK Delta Prologue Friday night.

Racing at BC Superweek continues with the White Spot Road Race Sunday, and concludes with the 30th anniversary historic Tour de White Rock, July 17-19th.

Report by Kevin Woodley, Media Relations Coordinator

Stage 1: Brenco Criterium