Sandra Walter opens 2022 BC Bike Race with prologue win
A short but spicy start sets out early leaders at 16th edition of Canadian classic
Photo by:
Dave Silver
BC Bike Race is back for its sixteenth edition and second year in B.C.’s Okanagan region. The race started off with a fast and furious prologue in Kelowna’s Crawford trails establishing early leaders for the seven-day race.
The Canadian classic is back to its roaming roots, with this year’s route traversing from Kelowna to Salmon Arm then back south to Penticton and the Naramata region. Friday’s prologue was only 10 km long (7 km timed, with a neutral rollout climb and cooldown) but already created time gaps at the front of the race.
Catharine Pendrel is back between the tape at BC Bike Race. Photo: Chris Stenberg
Whistler's Chloe Cross is hunting podiums this year. Photo: Chris Stenberg
Amity Rockwell is doubling up with the mountain and gravel BCBR stage races back-to-back. Photo: Chris Stenberg
Sandra Walter (Liv) established an early lead in the women’s race, using her World Cup fitness to establish a nearly two-minute gap over longtime friend and training partner, Catharine Pendrel. While Friday was Pendrel’s first race back since her official retirement last year, the Canadian national team coach still put in the day’s second fastest solo women’s time. Lauren Cantwell takes third, with Whistler’s Chloe Cross not far behind. Gravel cross-over Amity Rockwell (Easton Overland), one of the few racers taking on the BCBR mountain bike / Gravel Explorer double, rolled into the first half of her double-stage race in fifth.
Peter Disera is at his first BC Bike Race this year. Photo: Chris Stenberg
Karsten Madsen is one of a handful of riders adding Gravel Explorer to the BCBR this year. Photo: Chris Stenberg
Different scenery, and trails, than the coast, but still B.C. and still BCBR. Photo: Dave Silver
On the men’s side, the prologue foreshadowed a battle between Luke Vrouwenvelder (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) and Canadian XCO national champion Peter Disera (Norco Factory Team). The two cross country racers blitzed through Friday’s timed segment in blistering sub-18-minute times, the only racers to do so on Friday. Vrouwenvelder takes the win, but with Disera just two seconds behind the U.S. rider.
Canadian veteran racer, and past BCBR champ Geoff Kabush (Yeti Maxxis) another nine seconds back. Times are still tight, though. Carter Nieuwesteeg (Santa Cruz / Clif), hot off a win at Singletrack 6, and Stephan Davoust (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) lurk a handful of seconds off the podium. Former World Tour pro roadie, Rob Britton, crossed the line sixth even after a costly flat tire on course. With his power, and growing mountain bike experience, the Easton rider could still factor into this week’s racing.
With a long week of blind racing through the Okanagan region, this first seven kilometres surely won’t be decisive. But it does create a pecking order early on. For many BCBR racers, it was a chance to open the legs and lungs, test out bike set-up and get a feel for the distinctly dry flavour of the Okanagan dirt before the first real day of racing.
Saturday’s route returns to Kelowna’s Crawford trails, but for a full 40.5-km serving of singletrack for the week’s first proper day of racing.
BC Bike Race: Prologue (full results)
