July 23/05 5:59 am - Tour de White Rock: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 07/23/05
 

Tour de White Rock
Report by Kevin Woodley


Stage 1: Hill Climb

Will Pratt took advantage of a new format, an early start time, and some extra rest to win the Hill Climb at the Tour de White Rock Friday night.

Instead of racing the clock, this year's riders squared off against each other, with the fastest five from a timed heat starting again in a five-wide, side-by-side race to the podium.

Pratt was first out of the gate of the steep 700-metre straightaway up Buena Vista Avenue, powering up the lung-busting 16 per cent grade in one minute, 46.25 seconds. Almost an hour later, with the sun setting on Semiahmoo Bay behind him, Pratt found out his time was good enough to crack the top-five.

He knew right away he had a great chance to win it all the second time up because the top seeds all started later and three of the finalists - Andrew Pinfold, David Goosen and Dustin MacBurnie - had all gone up in the final three groups. The other finalist, Andrew Fischer, was in the 45th of 55 groups to race up the hill two at a time.

"It's so hard to recover and I had an hour so I was super fresh," said Pratt, riding for The Bike Barn, a Penticton store he part owns.

"Three-quarters of the way up I just dropped the hammer and went as hard as I could to gap and then I was able to spin across the line." Pinfold, an Ontario native who rides for the B.C.-based Symmetrics pro team, finished second, almost nine seconds behind Pratt, but less than a bike length ahead of Fischer despite being in the second-to-last group up the first time.

"Great," Pinfold said with a sarcastic laugh after being told he was in the finals. "Now I get to go back down and race guys who have rested for an hour." MacBurnie, Fischer's teammate on the Broadmark Capital team, was fourth, followed by Goosen, a Ladner native riding for Rocky Mountain-Adobe.

Pratt, who missed the first two events of BC Superweek (the Tour de Delta and Gastown) because his Penticton shop was simply too busy to leave, was thrilled to win an event littered with so many top pros, even if some of them let up in the first heat for fear of burning out for the rest of the weekend with a second run up the muscle-burning slope.

"It's pretty cool because some of those guys do it for a living and I got a full time job," said Pratt, who at 28 describes cycling as a passion. "Not often do you beat Tyler Farrar, Gord Fraser, Andrew Pinfold, those kind of guys. I'm pretty stoked right now." Like Pratt, Christina Briante was happy to get a second crack at the steep climb. The 26-year-old from Guelph, Ontario broke away early, easily winning the women's race to give the Symmetric Team its first win of the 2005 BC Superweek. Of course "easily" is a relative term when you just had to race 700 metres up a 16 per cent grade in the hot sun.

For most a second trip up might feel more like punishment than reward.

"No, it's a reward,'' insisted a panting, but smiling Briante, who now trains in Victoria with the Pacific Sport National Cycling Centre. "I always feel better on the second time around. I used to swim and I used to always swim faster the second time through. For me the first time was like a warm up and the second time you're muscles know what it's all about, your mind knows what it's all about and you can put it all together." Langley native Lisa Sweeney of Team Coastal was the next to cross the line, followed by Quebec's Karol-Ann Canuel of the Canadian National Junior Team.

Alison Testroete of Team Alberta, who was second in the Tour de Delta Hill Climb a week earlier, was fourth, followed by fellow Calgarian Jenny Trew of Team Coastal.

"It's important to get a result," said Briante of the Symmetrics Team, which had only a second place finish in the women's Tour de Delta criterium and a King of the Mountain points win in the Tour de Delta Road Race to show for eight Superweek events so far.

"We want to be on the podium so it was really great to get a win for the team, but you have to remember we're racing against some really strong riders so you can't win all the races." The Tour de White continues Saturday with the Criterium (3 p.m. start) before wrapping up with the Road Race on Sunday (8 a.m. start). It's the final stop in BC Superweek, a three-event series that also included the Tour de Gastown and Tour de Delta.