2007 Tour de Gastown Wrap-up
July 20, 2007
After years of good weather, riders were finally hit with
rain at the Tour de Gastown last night in downtown Vancouver.
The very slippery conditions caused numerous crashes in the
corners, and made it safer to be out in front, which resulted
in breakaways succeeding in both the women's and men's races.
Erinne Willock (Expresscopy.com) outsprinted breakaway
companion Leah Goldstein (Symmetrics) for the women's title,
with Kirk O'Bee (Health Net p/b Maxxis) taking the men's
ahead of Oleg Grishkin (Navigators), Svein Tuft (Symmetrics)
and Bradley Fairall (Supersport 35 ACNC).
The 1.2 kilometre circuit finishing straight is on a cobblestone surface, which isn't too bad in the wet, but the
corners were treacherous - especially the fourth and final
one before the last 300 metres to the line. Riders received
free laps (up until 5 to go) for crashes and many took
advantage of them, but Goldstein decided it was safer to be
out in front.
"In the middle of the pack you don't know what is going to
happen, and you can't avoid it when someone does fall, so I
thought it was just better to be out in front."
The Israeli national champion attacked just after the halfway
mark in the 30 lap race, with Willock latching onto to her
wheel. Stephanie Roorda (Giant Canada) also managed to bridge
up initially, but couldn't handle the pace after a couple of
laps and fell back to the peloton
The gap grew quickly, partially because the two strongest
teams were in the break (leaving only the Kiwi squad Jazz
Apple to chase), and partially because Goldstein was laying
down a very impressive effort.
Lap after lap she towed Willock around, coming through the
finish area each time with a near snarl on her face. American
Shelley Olds (Proman/Paradigm) tried to animate the field a
few times, but crashed herself, and wisely backed off,
eventually taking the field sprint for third.
In the final lap, Willock finally turned on the jets to drop
Goldstein by a few seconds and take the win.
"Leah attacked up one side of the field just as I had gotten
a little gap on the other," explained Willock. "I got on her
wheel and then saw that we had a little gap. Wow, was she strong!"
The men's race was aggressive from the start, with attacks
and counterattacks almost every lap. After 20 laps of the 50
lap race one break finally managed to get a sizable gap.
Initially, six riders broke away, including Tuft, but that
dropped to three after a couple of laps - Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics), Grishkin and Aaron Tuckerman (Rubicon). This
trio managed to extend their lead to over 15 seconds but
Health Net wasn't in the break, so shortly after the halfway
point it was all back together.
This set the stage for another break which would prove to be
the successful one, going with 19 laps remaining. Tuft,
Grishkin, O'Bee, Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) and Kristian
House (Navigators) went away initially, with Pinfold and
House dropping back after a few laps.
With the top three teams represented, after five laps away
the leaders were half a lap up, and only Fairall was chasing
on his own. It looked to be set, with the top three battling
for the win and Fairall to come in on his own, but then the
leaders inexplicably slowed with 11 to go and Fairall bridged
up a lap later. The gap was down to 23 seconds, and it looked
like they might get caught.
There were two reasons for the slow down: the leaders stopped
working together after an attack by O'Bee, and Fairall was
riding old tires...
"Kirk attacked us," commented Tuft afterwards. "I wasn't
going to work in that situation, so we all backed off. Then
Brad came up so fast ... and he was cornering so much better
than us. I looked at his tires and he had our old winter tires on!"
Fairall explained "The only wheels that I have here at home
(in Vancouver) are my winter wheels from last year. They are
a little heavier but proved to be the right choice in the rain."
Fairall took over the pacemaking - "It was hard to stay on
his wheel in the corners" commented Grishkin - and the gap
began to go back up again. But then disaster struck for Tuft
with five laps to go, when he crashed in the final corner.
Luckily it was the last lap for a free lap, and he was able
to rejoin the leaders, but he was definitely shaken, and rode
just off the back of the other three for the remainder of the race.
"As soon as you crash, you lose confidence, plus my hip was
hurting a bit. But Brad came across like a rocket; it was a
good ride for him."
On the final lap Grishkin went to the front, but then slid
out slightly in a corner, opening the door for O'Bee to come
through on the inside and take the win - certainly a
vindication after finishing third in a break last year
(behind Hilton Clarke (Navigators) and Fairall) on a flat tire.
"I wasn't thinking about last year," demurred the
Vancouver-based O'Bee. "Here you had to concentrate fully on
staying upright. It was so difficult ... not an easy race. We
were all playing cat-and-mouse, looking at each other, and
then it took Brad to keep it going. I wanted to be first out
of the last turn, and then I knew I could take control. And
that's what happened."
- Rob Jones, Canadian Cyclist
Photos available at:
www.canadiancyclist.com/races07/gastown/parttwo/index.htm
www.canadiancyclist.com/races07/gastown/partthree/index.htm
Also, Greg Descantes' photos can be found at:
www.canadiancyclist.com/races07/gastown/partone/index.htm |
