July 14/08 10:41 am - Tour de Delta: Stage 2 report, results, photos and Final GC

Posted by Editoress on 07/14/08
 

Tour de Delta

Locals Pinfold and Beijing-bound Bell repeat at Tour de Delta - American Benjamin, Australia’s Corset win on women’s side

Photos by Greg Descantes

It was repeat times two for Symmetrics Pro Cycling at the Tour de Delta as Andrew Pinfold won his second straight White Spot Road Race Sunday, and Beijing-bound Zach Bell finished third to take consecutive overall titles.

Pinfold took advantage of a nice lead out from Bell to win a bunch sprint to the finish ahead of Australian Cody Stevenson of Jittery Joes Pro Cycling, completing the 140-kilometer race through from North Delta into and around Tsawwassen in three hours, 19 minutes and 54 seconds.

“I only had to work hard the last 100 meters,” said Pinfold, a native of North Vancouver. “The guys rode unbelievable and just delivered me beautifully for the sprint win at the end. They did the hard work and I did the easy stuff at the end and fortunately I was able to win. Between Zach and I, we’re sort of the two fast men on the team and we go back and forth between who is feeling good and I guess it was Zach’s turn to lead me out and often times it’s the opposite, which is great between us.”

Bell, who was also third in the Lehigh Cement Criterium on Saturday night after placing fifth in the inaugural Brenco Prologue on Friday night, won the Tour de Delta overall with the lowest time over all three events.

“All these events this week are a bit of a build up (to Beijing),” said Bell, representing Canada in the Points Race and Madison on Olympic track. “I’m trying to keep a little bit of a fatigue on which means I’m still driving it pretty hard, just to top up endurance.”

Despite top teams and riders from all over the world, it was a sweep for the locally based Symmetrics team starting with Canadian Olympian Svein Tuft, of Langley, dominating the inaugural Brenco Prologue.

Hometown boy Cam Evans took advantage of another nice lead out from Bell to win the Lehigh Cement Criterium on Saturday, before Bell and Pinfold put the finishing touches on the team title in Sunday’s White Spot Road Race.

Next up as BC Superweek continues is the historic Tour de Gastown on Wednesday, followed by the fast-growing Giro di Burnaby and the 29th Tour de White, another three-stage race running from July to 20.

Winning the Tour de Gastown for the first time is a big goal for Symmetrics.

“Everybody on the team wants it pretty badly and if there’s a year we’re going to do it, it’s this year,” said Bell. “We’re all on better form than I’ve seen for a while and with the tools we have we have two or three guys that can win it from a break, and two or three who can win it from a sprint.”

For a while it looked like an early break might be the ticket in the road race, just as it was in Saturday’s criterium after a pair of riders stayed out front for the first seven laps of the finishing circuit. But the only reward was a King of the Mountain (a points-based award for the top riders each lap up the grueling hill just past the finish line) title for Trent Wilson of Jittery Joes, who joined local Jamie Sparling of TREK Red Truck Racing in a long break finally reeled in by the peleton with three laps left to go around the 11-kilometer portion of the track through the streets of Tsawwassen.

“That was the plan to put a little pressure on Symmetrics,” said Wilson, who settled for seeing teammate Cody Stevenson finish second after Jittery Joes Matt Shriver was second between two Symmetrics riders in the criterium. “All in all a good weekend.”

The 85-kilometer women’s road race was a repeat of the criterium result the night before, with American Kelly Benjamin of the No.1 NRC Cheerwine Pro Cycling Team winning a sprint to the finish line ahead of Australian Ruth Corset of Jazz Apple Cycling, and Langley’s Lisa Howard of the Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler squad that also took the Tour de Delta team title.
Benjamin couldn’t close a seven second gap on Corset for the overall title.

“It was a pretty aggressive race,” said Benjamin, a 33-year-old from Kansas City who, after quitting the U.S. Track Team to focus on road racing is an early favorite for the 2012 Olympics. “We tried to get away a lot, (teammate) Sarah (Bamberger) did a ton of work, and we were away a couple of times with the Jazz Apples, but the downhill is so long so before you knew it everyone was catching. Halfway through I thought "well, I’m probably not going to get the time I need on Ruth, so we’ll just try to win the stage’ and it worked out well. My teammate Sarah was again unbelievable. Honestly, I could never have done it without her.

“There are only two of us and some teams have five or six riders, so if it was just me against them there is no way I could do it. She helps me cover the moves and then we counter-attack each other, try and put the people that are in the overall with me into a little bit of pain and it works well.”

Bamberger also provided a perfect lead out for Benjamin’s win Saturday in the criterium. But both times Corset, who opened with a win in the Brenco Prologue on Friday night, stayed close enough to retain the overall lead and finish the three-stage Tour de Delta wearing the leader’s jersey.

Not bad for a 31-year-old mother of two who is in just her third season of cycling – and on her first international tour with the developmental Jazz Apple Team led by two-time New Zealand Olympian Susy Pryde.

“It’s very exciting,” said Corset, who also won Queen of the Mountain, not surprising given her shock at winning the Prologue and finishing second in the criterium was because she preferred climbing hills. “We made quite a few attacks and tried to get away on a few occasions and it didn’t work, so it came down to a bunch sprint at the end and I knew because I’m not a sprinter that I had to go from further back. I went right from the corner, so it was a pretty long sprint and I just went as hard as I could right out of my seat and Kelly came around me towards the end. It was a tough sprint.”