Despite Tour de Delta crash, Anika Todd confident as UBC Grand Prix Criterium approaches

With a revised course and slick, rainy conditions, the White Spot | Delta road race was a bit chaotic for some riders. Anika Todd, riding for Team Tibo-SVB, was one of them. Taken down by a crash during the 105-kilometre race, Todd was kicked way back in the standings, finishing 36th. It wasn’t enough to take her out of contention altogether, but it hurt.

Tuesday’s B.C. Superweek UBC Grand Prix Criterium has also been changed a bit, with nearby construction changing its overall configuration. Nonetheless, Todd isn’t letting Sunday’s crash affect her outlook as she prepares, or her confidence.

“It’s all part of it,” she said, speaking to The Province. “I’m a little banged up.”

The changes to the course shouldn’t be enough to pose a problem, anyway. Those alterations, race officials say, focus primarily on its more technical aspects. “The technicality of the race has been eliminated,” said Superweek director Mark Ernstring, “which allows for a bigger field to be a lot more active during the race.”

Recently, Todd and her teammates tried out that revised course, and the 25-year-old rider is confident that navigating it shouldn’t be an issue. If anything, its changes may invite more attacks from competing riders — something for which Todd’s prowess in the time trial, with a second-place finish at the Nationals in 2013 and a third-place finish in 2014, positions her very well.

“The previous years have been smaller breakaways,” she said. “Now it’ll probably be a bigger group. There are some really good sprinters here.”

The UBC Grand Prix Criterium starts at 6:00 p.m. at the University of British Columbia. On Wednesday evening, the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix happens at 5:30, with the Giro di Burnaby in Burnaby, B.C., happening Thursday evening at 6.