July 17/11 10:26 am - Tour de White Rock: Stage 2 report, photos and full results

Posted by Editoress on 07/17/11
 

Sprint finishes at the 2011 Tour de White Rock Choice's Market Criterium

New Zealand veteran Justin Kerr and Manitoba youngster Karlee Gendron come out on top

Photos by Greg Descantes

Women

Pro/1/2 Men

3/4 Men

As a mentor and leader on a young Team H&R BLOCK, New Zealand native Justin Kerr was ecstatic to set up younger teammate Cameron MacKinnon for the photo-finish win a the Giro di Burnaby on Thursday night.

As a former professional who raced for three years in Europe, the 31-year-old was almost as happy to show the young kids he still knows how to finish himself by winning the Tour de White Rock Choice’s Market Criterium on Saturday.

Kerr got into a four-rider breakaway 35 laps into the 60-lap race around a hilly one-kilometer circuit through the streets of White Rock, then jumped past Marsh Cooper of the Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth Pro Cycling team 50 meters before the final corner and winning a final sprint to the finish line.

“I’ll take it. I’ve got some form and the three other guys are really good, really honest riders,” said Kerr after finishing in one hour, 11 minutes and 16.6 seconds – minutes before the skies opened with rain. “Two laps to go I almost went off the back. I was that close to being dropped, but I knew I had to be first in the corner and my kick’s not great but it’s good enough to win from a break like that.”

The break also included David Stephens and Curtis Deardon, both from the Vancouver-based Garneau Evolution elite team. Stephens finished third, while Deardon settled for three primes on bonus laps, including a $875 crowd prime with five to go, to push his winnings well over $1,000 for the evening.

It was an impressive finish for the amateur riders against a field loaded with top professionals from all over North America, and some who race in Europe.

“It was our goal coming into the week to get somebody on a podium and we got that, so we’ve got to be pretty pleased,” said Deardon. “And the money helps.”

There were 72 riders on the start line, but with lap times just over a minute early on as racers like Dan Holloway, the current USA Criterium champion from Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth, pushed hard for cash primes, the field broke apart pretty fast. After some 65-second laps mid-race, only 32 finished.

“The first 15 laps were just constant attacks and accelerations,” said Deardon. “That hill doesn’t make things easy so I’m not surprised it split up pretty quick.”

Cooper, an Aldergrove native who now rides for Maryland-based Kelly Benefit Strategies, wasn’t nearly as happy to be runner up for the second time this week after losing to Columbian Olympian Carlos Alzate at the UBC Grand Prix

“Justin jumped me about 50 metes before the corner and right as he was going through I thought ‘oh man I’m going to lose,’” said Cooper. “I really wanted this one so I’m pretty gutted, but second place is great and I lost to a great rider.”

Kerr spent three years racing in Belgium, and another two in Los Angeles before coming to Vancouver to work full time. He jumped at the chance to work with the locally based Team H&R BLOCK, which competes as a Canadian Cycling Association Trade Team. And as happy as he was to win, he was just as delighted with a third place finish in Burnaby Thursday – because it was his work that kept a small breakaway ahead of an impressive field of top pros, and set MacKinnon, a long-time track racer, up for his first road race victory.

“That was rewarding because Cam came on board as a sprinter and hadn’t had a lot of success,” Kerr said. “So knowing if I hadn’t done what I did we wouldn’t have won, is pretty rewarding, and that’s just broken the seal for Cam. I try and tell the guys every week, you are so close to being there. It’s just about having the confidence to go. The step these guys and a continental contract is very small. It’s one good result, that’s all it takes. One good result at BC Superweek and you’re in, as a lot of people have shown from here in the past.”

Kerr is also planning to help a blind cyclist ride in the 2012 Paralympics in London by working as his guide – all part of staying in the sport.

“I’m 31 and getting to the end of my career but I still love bike racing,” he said.

Women’s race

The women’s race featured familiar faces on – and atop – the podium.
Karlee Gendron, a 19-year-old Manitoba native now racing for the local Trek Red Truck amateur team, won a sprint to the finish for her third criterium victory in five chances BC Superweek. Gendron, who won both "crits" and the overall at Tour de Delta, completed 30 laps of the 1-kilometer circuit in just over 42 minutes.

In the final sprint, Gendron beat Canadian track team World Cup medalist Laura Brown and 19-year-old Jasmine Glaesser, teammates on Local Ride Racing/Dr. Vie Superfoods, who were coming off a 1-2 finish in Friday’s Hillclimb.

“Trek Red truck just wanted to ride a really aggressive race, and that’s what we did,” said Gendron, who was also third at the UBC Grand Prix and Giro di Burnaby criteriums and second at the Delta road race, “We wanted to make it as hard as we could to make it as hard as possible for other teams to attack.”

In addition to the finish line sprint, the women’s race featured several charges on prime laps, and it was usually a green jersey of the Keller Rohrback team from Seattle at the front. Patricia Bailey, a 40-year-old from Seattle who was also third at the Tour de Delta Brenco Criterium, won three of the bonus laps, including a $375 crowd prime, and two of her teammates also claimed prime money, while a fourth member, Elizabeth Nettles, finished in the money at fourth overall.

“White Rock is a well known crit and the primes are well known and we know the other teams are going to be focused on the end so I had four good girls and I told them we’re going for primes,” said Bailey. “We’re going for money. There’s no reason to wait and scrap it out at the end, so go for your money and get it.”

Brown and Glaesser reduced numbers Saturday, with just four Local Ride Racing teammates starting and no one else finishing (all six Trek Red Truck riders finished), which made their dual podium finish more impressive.

Leaders take the final turn

“We had to be more on defense and use our energy wisely,” Brown said.

Brown retained the overall lead heading into Sunday’s road race, while Glaesser, who won the Tour de Delta Road Race, sits second in the omnium standings.

After watching Gendron and Trek Red Truck dominate the podium all week before a Local Ride Racing sweep in the White Rock Hillclimb on Friday night, Brown and Glaesser aren’t planning on going down without a fight Sunday.

“We are a pretty strong team of riders and just haven’t been able to get it together for these crits,” said Glaesser. “But we still have the overall lead and I’m still in second place, so we’ll try to make it hard tomorrow for them.”

Nic Hamilton, a Victoria native racing for California-based Jelly Belly presented by Kenda, will wear the men’s overall leaders jersey after following up his second place finish in Friday’s Hillclimb with a seventh-place showing Saturday. But Kerr is tied in points, and Will Routley of Team SpiderTech is just three behind.

The 32nd Tour de White Rock continues with historic Peace Arch News Road Race on Sunday to complete the $65,000 BC Superweek series.

Courtesy Tour de White Rock