Canadians win several prizes at San Dimas stage race

Rob Sturney March 31, 2015

Last weekend’s San Dimas stage race in Southern California had several Canadian successes in both the women’s and men’s sides. Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies took home three of the women’s jerseys, with Lex Albrecht securing the mountain polka dots on stage two while Jasmin Glaesser nabbed the white young rider’s jersey. On the men’s side Adam de Vos of Canadian squad H&R Block took the under-25 white jersey as well.

Lex Albrecht in the mountains jersey leads her teammates in San Dimas crit.

Day one saw an uphill time trial in which de Vos placed seventh. In the women’s race Optum’s Brianna Walle (USA) was runner-up to 2008 world time trial champion Amber Neben (USA/Visit Dallas-Noise) by 29-seconds, a margin that Optum endeavoured to erase in the following two days.

On Saturday’s road race HR Block was busy in the peloton and breaks, managing to move de Vos up to seventh on GC. Meanwhile, Optum swept the women’s podium, with Albrecht victorious, Walle runner-up and Canadian “almost everything champion” Leah Kirchmann in third.

Sunday’s final stage was a criterium, where H&R Block tried to crack the competition. De Vos and fellow Canadian Peter Disera got in the early break. Disera explained, “This was intended to put pressure on the other GC contenders and cause their teams to use their matches to chase. It also allowed Adam to ride with less stress of positioning in the pack”. Though the escape was brought to heel, H&R Block put de Vos in fine place for the final sprint, moving him up to fourth on GC. Emerson Oronte (Alto Velo-Seasucker) was the all-around men’s winner.

In the women’s tilt, the Canadians shone once again. Kirchmann came second to Walle while Albrecht’s prize from winning one of the primes wasn’t what she thought.

The #GoldChain I won at #SDSR2015. Not quite what I expected… but VERY sweet #bikebling! @TeamClifBar @OPTUMpbKBS pic.twitter.com/kuLSsVxo7a

— Lex Albrecht (@Lex_Albrecht) March 30, 2015

Walle couldn’t quite bump Neben off the top of the podium but took home the green points jersey. Twenty16-Sho Air’s Allie Dragoo, third in the time trial, rounded out the podium.