June 16/19 20:11 pm - Foreman-Mackey & Brouwer Win Preston St Crit Titles

Posted by Editoress on 06/16/19
 

A mix of established stars and up-and-comers took away the top prizes at the 47th edition of the Preston Street Criterium in Ottawa on Father's Day Sunday.

Racing on a new course in the streets of Little Italy, that featured a short but taxing climb, Annie Foreman-Mackey (The Cyclery) racked up her record fourth win in the elite women's category, while Mark Brouwer (NeWorld Cycling Team) was a first-time winner of the elite men's event, with a bold solo move in the closing laps.

As always, Preston Street featured a full slate of events for elite, masters and youth categories, with the ever-popular kids' races entertaining the crowd between the feature events.

In the elite women's event, local favorites The Cyclery Racing were only able to line up two riders due to conflicting track racing commitments, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality with defending champion Ariane Bonhomme alongside three-time winner Annie Foreman-Mackey.

Both riders were very active throughout the hour-plus-five-lap race, but weren't able to make any moves stick, thanks to stiff opposition from Luce Bourbeau (MACOGEP-Tornatech-Specialized-p/b Mazda), former Scottish road champion Jennifer George (West of Quebec Wheelers) and Canadian road champion Katherine Maine (Rally UHC).

With two laps to go, the race looked to be headed to a bunch sprint when Foreman-Mackey launched a move that only Bourbeau was able to follow. Foreman-Mackey proved the stronger in the two-up sprint, with Bonhomme beating the rest of the field for third place.

"Our plan was to take a flyer in the final two laps, and it worked out," said Foreman-Mackey, who is now the record holder for Preston Street victories with four wins.

The elite men's race, featuring former winners Osmond Bakker (Nine2FivePro Cycling Team) and Derrick St-John (Independent), was animated by repeated attacks from Steve McKee (Wheels of Bloor), Daniel Koszela (Win Cycling Centre) and Myles Zagar (Midweek Cycling), but nothing was able to gain more than 10 seconds until almost an hour into the race when a group of five got away. Adam Miller (Ascent Cycling p/b MGCC, Nicolas Coté (iBike), St-John, Brouwer and Ed Veal (RealDeal Racing) quickly built up a 20-second gap that kept growing despite the efforts of Warren MacDonald (N2FivePro) to bring it back.

With three laps to go, and with the break close to lapping the field, Brouwer launched a solo move and held on to a five-second advantage to the finish line, winning his first Preston Street Criterium in four attempts.  Cote won the group sprint for second in front of Veal.

"I looked around and realized I wasn't going to win the sprint in this group," said Brouwer, who had no teammates, but whose father drove five hours to attend the event.  "I was pretty cooked from the climb, but I went for it."


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