Race Report –Amalgamated Tours of Delta and White Rock

The inaugural Tour de Delta was a 3 stage tour held in southern Vancouver.  Instead of having a General Classification based on time, omnium points were awarded for each stage.  A week later, the Tour de White Rock was held, a hillier 3 stage race, which has been running for 22 years.  Points from both tours were amalgamated to determine the overall combined tour winner.

Each tour had an identical format:  a hill climb prologue, a criterium and a road race.

Tour de Delta – 6-8 July 2001

Friday 6^th July Stage 1 – 700m 11% Hill Climb, North Delta

Conditions: 25°C, 6.30pm start.

The hill flattened slightly after 200m, then became increasingly steeper over the remaining 600m, before turning 90degrees to the left for a final 100m sprint to the line.

Riders started 30sec apart and I was 3^rd last to start.  I hadn’t heard the previous girls times (and didn’t particularly want to know) as I was busy on the windtrainer keeping the heartrate up.  I rode in the small ring, starting in my 21 gearing, moving briefly to the 19 to pick up speed and then gradually shifting into smaller gears as the hill steepened.  As the road flattened out at the top I tried to switch to the big ring but it wouldn’t go in.  I sprinted as best I could in the small ring, a little annoyed I couldn’t get the chain across, and which probably cost me the win.

I finished 2^nd, 0.34sec behind the winner, Clare Hall-Patch who apparently finished 3^rd in the Junior World Championships last year, and is a rider of the Canadian National Team won the stage.  Third place was nearly 3sec behind us.  Clare received 10pts, while I had 8.

Saturday 7^th July Stage 2 – 40km Criterium, Ladner

Conditions: 25°C, 6.00pm start.

The plan today was to try and establish a break, (without Clare in it) and put some time (points) into her.  The Snow Valley team, Speed Queen team and Clare were chasing down all attacks.  Marnie Pratsky (a regional criterium champion) was also a dominant player, and no attacks lasted.

Perhaps in error, I contested a number of the primes, won 4 of them (merchandise and Canadian money), but it took the edge off my sprint.  In the final laps the whole bunch was together.  An attack went on the last lap and I sat 4^th wheel but was unable to come around to win.  Clare finished 5^th.  This result put me only 1pt behind Clare.

Sunday 8^th July Stage 3 – 84km Road Race, Tsawwassen

Conditions: 21°C, 8.00am start – no wind.

I ate at 6.30am and hoped I would feel better once I warmed up.  I felt tired all over and had no energy.  I spun the legs on the windtrainer for 40mins and didn’t feel much better.

The course was a 7.5km loop that we did 11 times.  The course had one steep 1km uphill section immediately before the finish, while the rest of the course was undulating and flat.  There was a Queen of the Mountain category at the start/finish line of each lap.  I struggled up the climb on the first lap, not able to obtain any points, and focusing more on staying with the bunch.  I had taken the edge off my legs (in the criterium primes) and I hadn’t recovered.  I hoped on the next few laps I would pick up.

The next 4 laps I didn’t improve.  I struggled more up the hill and had to chase to get back onto the bunch each lap.  As I felt so lousy climbing today, I should have used other parts of the course such as going hard on the flats to try and break up bunch up to get away, as I couldn’t get away on the climb.  An attack by two riders, Clare Hall-Patch and Darnelle Moore went on the hill on lap 7 and I couldn’t go with it.  The bunch chased relatively hard after the climb but the break remained about 20sec in front of us.

My next mistake was that I stayed in the bunch for another 2 laps thinking we’d bring them back.  However, on lap 10 the men’s field passed our bunch up the climb and passed by the breakaway girls over the top of the climb.  They jumped into the mens bunch (and the commissaire ignored them) and as we came around for bell lap they had over 2mins on us.

I unsuccessfully tried to get away in the last lap.  I suffered up the climb for the 11^th time and finished 11^th, receiving only 4pts.  I was hugely disappointed, slipping from 2^nd in points to 4^th.

The Omnium points after the first 3 stages were: Clare Hall-Patch 31pts, Dawn Berg 28pts, Dana Walton 24pts, Helen Kelly 21 pts, and Tania Duff-Miller 15pts.  Clare was not competing in the tour de White Rock so I started the next tour, 7 points behind Dawn.