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Tour de White Rock - NE
Canada, July 20, 2008
Horner, Ellis wrap up White Rock wins
American cycling star Chris Horner wrapped up his first trip to BC Superweek in impressive fashion, powering away from Matt Shriver and Andrew Pinfold up the final hill to win the Peace Arch News Road Race at the Tour de White Rock on Sunday. Horner, who finished 15th at last year's Tour de France, led the three-man breakaway with an attack coming out of a hairpin and up a steep climb on the last of 11 laps around the big 10-kilometre circuit. Driven by Horner, the trio stayed away for all six laps of the shorter 3.8-kilometre route before he finally created a gap his last trip up the big backside hill.
"There's just no reason to finish in a big group," said Horner, whose new Astana team was banned from the Tour de France over problems with last year's squad. "It's dangerous coming into the last corner, and in all honesty the first climb at the back you get a straight run into it, so it's going to be really hard to get anyone off your wheel, so the best time to do it was after the hairpin because everyone is going to lose speed. We got a good split there and had a perfect group and just punched it."
After watching the Symmetrics Pro Cycling team dominate Superweek by setting Pinfold up for bunch sprints, including criterium wins at the Tour de Gastown Wednesday, the Giro di Burnaby Thursday, and a night earlier in White Rock, the key for Horner was splitting things up and keeping them apart through the final lap of the tough, hilly, 134-kilometre course.
"It always came down to a field sprint, but Andrew was just so fast," said Horner of BC Superweek. "I've been over in Europe so I'm not familiar with these guys offhand and I was like 'man, that guy's fast.' I thought maybe it was a tactic thing, but they just kept winning and winning."
Horner also won King of the Mountain, and perhaps just as impressive, the Bend, Oregon native single-handedly ended Symmetrics hopes of a sweep after the locally based team won the first seven races of the $70,000 BC Superweek.
"They have a fantastic team," he said. "I hope they find a new sponsor because they have really put together a good team for Canadian cycling. All week they raced really tactically smart. It was a little frustrating for me because of how strong they are, but they come through with the win every time."
Until Sunday, that is. But Pinfold said there was no shame in losing to Horner, a 36 year-old ProTour rider who won three straight USA Cycling NRC Championships from 2002 to 2004 before going overseas.
"I've won this road race twice, but I don't think I've ever gone up the hills as fast as I did having to follow those guys around," said Pinfold, who also won the Tour de Delta Road Race a week earlier in a late sprint. "I was starting to cramp a little bit and I've had a great week and to be in such great company, I was just happy to be there. These hills are good for me most of the time. There's a speed above which I cannot go up them, but they're just short enough that I can grunt myself over them and then I'm fine. The last few times, the hill was just coming too quickly."
Pinfold finally got dropped on that final lap, finishing third behind Shriver, whose second place finish was also enough to edge Pinfold for the Tour de White Rock Omnium, the second-straight for the Jittery Joes rider.
"I was just doing all I could to stay with Horner," said Shriver, a Pocatello, Idaho native who also finished second in the Tour de Delta criterium and overall a week earlier. "On the back stretch Chris was hitting it every time and I knew it was going to be down to that last lap and when it went just didn't have it and came apart. I'm really excited to be up there with him, you try to dig really deep and find that extra gear inside yourself and every time I was hurting really bad - and even on some of the laps before I was really suffering - I just kept telling myself 'you have to go to a harder gear. I was able to hang until last lap and just couldn't do it anymore."
Things were a little easier - relatively speaking - in the women's race, as New Zealand's Lauren Ellis broke away midway through eight laps of the larger, 10-kilometre circuit, and never looked back. The 19 year-old finished almost a full four minutes ahead of Australian Jazz Apple team-mate Ruth Corset, who won a sprint to finish second and claim the Tour de White Rock's Omnium.
Calgary's Steph Roorda of Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler barely beat Sarah Bamberger of No.1-ranked Cheerwine Pro Cycling for third place, leaving the San Francisco native to settle for the Queen of the Mountain award.
For Ellis, a two-time Junior World Championship Individual Pursuit medalist in her first year of road racing, the plan was originally to set up Corset for the Omnium. But that changed when she opened up a gap on the field.
"A group of us got a small break after the climb and we were just driving it and I just went to the front and drove it on the downhill and got a call from Susy [Pryde, Jazz Apple's riding director] saying I've got a gap, and just drive it, drive it, drive it. So I went as hard as I could and got the gap. It wasn't planned, but it's great when you've got a gap and it sticks."
With radio trouble making it hard to be sure how far out in front she was, Ellis never stopped driving, continuously improving on her big lead.
"[Not knowing] was hard but it just made me determined to drive it harder and harder," said Ellis, New Zealand's 2008 Elite Points Race Champion.
Corset's ability to keep driving it was made all the more impressive by how she finished Friday night's Hillclimb - on her back being treated by medical staff after cramping and collapsing shortly after her second trip up the grueling 700-metre, 16 % grade ascent up from the beach.
"I went too hard the first climb," said Corset, who was eight seconds faster than anyone else the first time up, then had to go up again, head to head with four other riders. "I went as hard as I could from the bottom and I shouldn't have done that because my legs just seized up at the top. I couldn't feel my legs at all, they just collapsed under me and spasmed, and cramped and I was in heaps of pain. My teammates massaged me that night and we did a recovery ride the next morning and I was fine."
Corset recovered to finish second at the criterium on Saturday, losing a photo-finish sprint to Cheerwine's Kelly Benjamin, and was right back at it on Sunday morning. The 31-year-old, in just her third year of competitive cycling, finished BC Superweek by adding to a total that already included the Tour de Delta Prologue and overall titles (and second in the road race and criterium there), as well as third place behind Benjamin and Canadian Olympian Gina Grain at the criteriums in both Gastown and Burnaby.
Results
Elite men 1 Chris Horner (USA) Astana Cycling Team 1.36.43 2 Matt Shriver (USA) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling 0.10 3 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics Cycling 0.33 4 Francois Parisien (Can) Team RACE Pro 1.10 5 Will Routley (Can) Symmetrics Cycling 1.11 6 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics Cycling 7 Scott Zwizanski (USA) Bissell Pro Cycling Team 1.34 8 Derrick St John (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling 1.38 9 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Team Waste Management 2.16 10 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling 11 Rob Britton (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic 12 Cory Forrest (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 13 Brad Kerr (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 2.17 14 Garrett Peltonen (USA) Bissell Pro Cycling Team 2.19 15 Mathew Bell (Can) Calyon Pro Cycling Team 2.22 16 Jared Barrilleaux (USA) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling 2.23 17 Chris Devries (Can) Team H&R Block 18 Ryan Anderson (Can) Symmetrics Cycling 2.24 19 Cyrus Kangarloo (Can) Team H&R Block 2.29 20 Trent Wilson (Aus) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling 2.40 21 Tim Henry (USA) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling 2.50 22 Chris McNeil (Can) Team H&R Block 4.13 23 Trevor Connor (Can) Chris Cookies/Swan Cycles 4.17 24 Dave Vukets (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic 4.39 25 Alistair Howard (Can) Kona-Adobe 5.01 26 Curtis Dearden (Can) Dearden Construction Services 6.45 27 Kevin Noiles (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic 28 Marcel Aarden (Can) Kona-Adobe 29 Ryan Taylor (Can) Campione-Ratcliff Racing Team 30 Nic Hamilton (Can) Team Aviawest 31 Hugh Trenchard (Can) Shwalbe CC 32 Dan Macdonald (Can) Kona-Adobe 33 Nathan Macdonald (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic 34 Sean Mazich (USA) Team Waste Management 35 Roman Kilun (USA) Health Net Pro Cycling Team 36 Carson Miller (USA) Rubicon-ORBEA 37 Jonathan Gormick (Can) Kona-Adobe 38 Stevie Cullinan (USA) Team Waste Management 39 Ron Jensen (USA) Team Waste Management 40 Jonathan Page (Can) Escape Velocity 41 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics Cycling 42 Jeff Sherstobitoff (Can) Symmetrics Cycling DNF Cody Stevenson (Aus) Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling DNF Kirk O'Bee (USA) Health Net Pro Cycling Team DNF Kyle Gritters (USA) Health Net Pro Cycling Team DNF Morgan Schmitt (USA) Bissell Pro Cycling Team DNF Mike Sayers (USA) BMC Pro Cycling Team DNF Matt Potma (Can) Kona-Adobe DNF Jon Parrish (USA) Team Waste Management DNF Grant Van Horn (USA) Team Waste Management DNF Kyle Ward (USA) Team Waste Management DNF Trevor Haaheim (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Tim Sherstobitoff (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Owen Harrison (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Dan Skinner (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Sean Williams (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Matthew Guse (Can) Calyon Pro Cycling Team DNF Mathieu Roy (Can) Calyon Pro Cycling Team DNF Dave Brooks (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic DNF Logan Hunn (USA) Rubicon-ORBEA DNF Shaun Morris (Aus) Rubicon-ORBEA DNF Roman Van Uden (NZl) Rubicon-ORBEA DNF Allen Krughoff (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling DNF Ryan Hamity (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling DNF Taylor Shelden (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling DNF Brad Bingham (USA) Team Rio Grande Cycling DNF John Perkins (Can) Glotman Simpson Racing DNF Chris Worsfold (Can) Glotman Simpson Racing DNF Maurice Worsfold (Can) Glotman Simpson Racing DNF Tom Last (GBr) Kinesis UK DNF Josh James (Can) Kinesis UK DNF Shane Savage (Can) Mighty Cycling DNF Michael Rothengatter (Can) Escape Velocity DNF Aaron Schooler (Can) Team H&R Block DNF Anthony Steenbergen (Can) Team H&R Block DNF Michael Sencenbaugh (USA) Fanatik Bike Co DNF Bryce Fegley (USA) Fanatik Bike Co. DNF Russell Stead (Can) La Bicicletta DNF David Gillam (Can) Cycle Solutions DNF Kyle Fry (Can) Cycle Solutions/Angry Johnny's Racing DNF Jesse James Collins (Can) Bicisport Gruppo Sportivo Campione DNF Aaron Chappell (Can) ERTC DNF Shaun Adamson (Can) Juventus DNF Joe Wessel (Can) Kelowna Cycle Opus sd23 DNF Geoff Macdonald (Can) ERTC/Revolution Cycle DNF Andrew Roche (Irl) Pinarello DNF Matthew O'Hagan (Can) Campione-Ratcliff Racing Team DNF Sebastian Salas (Can) Campione-Ratcliff Racing Team DNF Stephen Ferris (Can) ERTC/Revolution Cycle DNF Stewart Bowmer (USA) Fanatik Bike Co. DNF Jamie Sparling (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic DNF Phil Elsasser (USA) First Rate Mortgage Cycling Team DNF Quinn Keogh (USA) Independent DNF Cam Evans (Can) Symmetrics Cycling DNS Zack Garland (Can) Kona-Adobe DNS Chris Reid (Can) Kona-Adobe DNS Shawn Goulet (Can) Kona-Adobe DNS Maxime Vives (Can) Calyon Pro Cycling Team DNS Tyler Trace (Can) TREK Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic DNS Devon Vigus (USA) California Giant/Specialized DNS Tim Abercrombie (Can) Escape Velocity DNS Jeff Ain (Can) Escape Velocity DNS Paul Beard (Can) Escape Velocity DNS Owen Sturgess (Can) Escape Velocity DNS Jeff Bolstad (Can) Team H&R Block DNS Mark Macdonald (Can) Team H&R Block DNS Kurtis Vallee (Can) Team Aviawest DNS Matthew Martyniuk (Can) Moose Jaw Pavers/Boh's Cycle DNS Ben Chaddock (Can) Independent DNS Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Elite women 1 Lauren Ellis (NZl) Jazz Apple Cycling Team 2.44.28 2 Ruth Corset (NZl) Jazz Apple Cycling Team 3.54 3 Steph Roorda (Can) Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler Canada 4 Sarah Bamberger (USA) Cheerwine Pro Cycling 5 Marie-Claude Gagnon (Can) Glotman Simpson 3.55 6 Sarah Stewart (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 7 Natasha Elliott. (Can) EMD Serono/Stevens 8 Heather Kay (Can) ERTC/Revolution Cycle 9 Yukie Nakamura (Jpn) Team Kenda Tire 10 Megan Rathwell (Can) Team H&R Block 11 Kristine Brynjolfson (Can) Team Coastal 12 Gillian Moody (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 4.00 13 Susannah Pryde (NZl) Jazz Apple Cycling Team 4.06 14 Jessica Hannah (Can) Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler Canada 4.11 15 Marisa Russell (USA) Procon/FNBA 4.28 16 Moriah Macgregor (Can) Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler Canada 7.18 17 Stacey Spencer (Can) Different Bikes 8.02 18 Karen Watson (Can) Glotman Simpson 8.05 19 Jennifer Schulz (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 9.08 20 Leslie Vice (Can) Glotman Simpson 9.09 21 Margaret Pugh (Can) Chicks Cycling Club 11.44 22 Kelsey Miller (Can) Wedgewood Cycling Team 12.36 23 Jaymie Mcgowan (Can) Oak Bay Bikes 16.09 24 Shoshauna Laxson (USA) Team Whistler 25 Amy Herlinveaux (Can) Dearden Construction 26 Dana Lis (Can) Chicks Cycling Club 16.14 DNF Kelly Benjamin (USA) Cheerwine Pro Cycling DNF Hannah Banks (Aus) ValueAct Capital DNF Laura Brown (Can) Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler Canada DNF Monica Nelson (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team DNF Jennifer Tabbernor (Can) Team Whistler DNF Alyssa Weninger (Can) Sask/BCW DNF Rachel Mcbride (Can) West Point Cycles DNF Gillian Carleton (Can) Organic Athlete DNS Megan Elliott (USA) Independant DNS Malindills Maclean (NZl) Jazz Apple Cycling Team DNS Jenny Trew (Can) Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler Canada DNS Lisa Dorian (Can) Chicks Cycling Club
