World-class Racing in B.C.
What do riders do during July if they aren't at the Tour de France? Head home and rip it up with the local racing fields.
Recently retired from professional cycling, Andrew Randell has taken up a management/rider development role with the Jet Fuel/La Bicicletta team for 2012 and opened up his coaching services to the public. Reach him at arcoaching@gmail.com
What do riders do during July if they aren’t at the Tour de France? Head home and rip it up with the local racing fields. B.C. Superweek finished last weekend, a string of nine events held in and around Vancouver that had a solid world-class field racing.
Many of the top tier B.C. riders were racing: Svein Tuft, Christian Meier, Will Routley and Ryan Anderson. These guys race on the World Tour and in Europe and the locals got the chance to test their legs against them. With several night time crits during the week, the races attracted large crowds. These kinds of races have become a real staple of the Canadian road racing scene.
The biggest event was the Gastown Grand Prix in downtown Vancouver. Spectators piled up on the barriers to see the riders race on the finishing straightaway, a cobbled false flat uphill that stretched the field into one long line. There were so many people watching that they even went up into the parking garage across from the first turn to stand on the upper levels and look out over the parking garage walls.
As a rider one great thing about B.C. Superweek was that it helped to keep riders in shape during a long stretch between races, a lull in the season. With the crits mainly at night they got to sleep in each morning and spend the day relaxing. A bit of mid-season repose that was well earned.
As Svein Tuft said in a post-race interview the other day, the weather in B.C. is always amazing in July. And as I remember the berry fields were ready for picking, and the berries were ready for eating.
