July 9/11 9:15 am - BC Superweek Kicks Off with Tour de Delta

Posted by Editoress on 07/9/11
 

After being part of a four-rider breakaway that spent half the race building a 30-second lead, it came down to the final corner for Ryan Anderson at the first race of BC Superweek at the Tour de Delta on Friday night (July 8th).

He almost didn't make it.

Anderson got his front tire almost sideways and clipped a pedal before straightening out just in time to win a sprint to the finish line just ahead of Columbia's Andres Diaz and Aldergrove native Marsh Cooper at the first ever MK Delta Lands Criterium.

Ryan Anderson wins

"It was a pretty exciting finish, got a little jumpy out of the last corner but happy to win," said Anderson, a Vancouver native who rides internationally for Team SpiderTech, the professional cycling team started by Canadian cycling legend Steve Bauer with the goal of competing in the Tour de France. "That's not too normal, but it happens."

Anderson managed to avoid an early crash that took down close to a dozen riders, and completed 40 laps around the 1.3-kilometer closed-street circuit in North Delta in one hour, five minutes and 11 seconds. He spent half the race in a break with Diaz, who rides for the Boise-based Team Exergy. Cooper, another local cyclist who races professionally in North American with the Minnesota-based Kelly Benefit Strategies-Optum Health Pro Cycling team, and Sebastien Salas of the locally based Team H&R Block.

Christian Meier and Andrew Pinfold

But a pack that included several top international pros like Christian Meier and Andrew Pinfold from UnitedHealthcare, Columbian Olympian Carlos Alzate (Team Exergy) and current US Criterium champion Daniel Halloway (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Optum Health) reeled in the break on the final climb up the back stretch, forcing Anderson and company to make a mad dash into that tight final corner just before the finish line.

"I kind of had the best seat in the house for Ryan's little maneuver in the last corner," said Cooper. "I was secretly hoping they would fall over and I would sneak through for the win but it didn't work out this time."

Diaz was surprised the break stayed away as long as it did, setting up a sprint to the finish line that played away from his strengths as a climber.

"I was very surprised because the last 13 laps we were not working very good, we were not helping each other and the SpiderTech guy was not helping us," Diaz said. "That was pretty scary at the end in the that corner. I braked but I should have kept going. I got scared because I'm not a sprinter, but then after it was like 'what did I do?' "

The 30-lap women's race also came down to a sprint to the finish, one that pitted a pair of up-and-coming 19-year-old Canadians against a 40-year-old mother of three, who just happens to be married to a Canadian Olympic medal winning cyclist.

Karlee Gendron sprints

Karlee Gendron, a Winnipeg native riding for the local Trek Red Truck team won the 30-lap women's race in 57 minutes and 56 seconds. Gendron, who recently raced in Europe on a Team Canada project, beat out Dana Walton, the wife of Tour de Delta co-founder and Olympian Brian Walton, who was announcing the race. Jasmin Glaesser, another young rider who recently competed in Europe, celebrated her 19th birthday by finishing third while representing the Local Ride Racing/ Dr. Vie Superfoods team.

"It as a tough day, all the teams kept the pace really high," said Gendron, admitting a hill on the backstretch was not what a Manitoban wants to see. "I'm not a hills rider at all, every time through was hard, but out team came through and it came out really well."

Walton was just happy to finish, saying she thought about packing it in a couple of times only to be spurred on by her cheering kids - ages 5, 7. 9. Considering she was out of racing for 12 years - almost as long as her competitors have been alive - and only started training last winter after racing casually the last two years, it was an impressive finish.

"I'm really happy. I hate to say surprising but in a way it is," said Walton, riding for Cadence/Alliance Environmental. "It was a very hard race. There weren't too many down periods. At one point I was gapped and thought 'this is it', but I heard my kids yelling and I thought ... 'Okay, I've got to at least finish' but I was able to pull out second."

Glaesser, who won the 2010 Canadian Junior Road Race and Time Trial championships but wasn't recognized because she was born in Germany and is still waiting for her Canadian citizenship, would have preferred a time trial-style prologue like last year's BC Superweek kick-off race. But she was happy with a podium in the criterium.

"It wasn't my best race but we had some good moments as a team," said Glaesser, who spent a month in Europe before the recent national championships. "This is for sure one of the best races in Canada all year. I can't think of another race that gets this audience and this good a set up, so it's great publicity for our team and for us riders."

The Tour de Delta continue with the Brenco Criterium on Saturday night and the White Spot Road Race on Sunday. BC Superweek continues with the inaugural UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, the return of the Giro di Burnaby Thursday, and the historic three-race Tour de White Rock July 15-17.

Men's Photos   by Greg Descantes, descantes.com

Women's Photos   by Greg Descantes, descantes.com

report Courtesy Tour de Delta