Olympian Bell leads sweep at Tour de Delta Road Race

Canadian Olympian Zach Bell led a road race sweep for US-based Kelly Benefit Strategies Pro Cycling at the 10th Tour de Delta on Sunday.


Bell was part of an early 10-man breakaway, then rode away from them with four 8-kilometer laps left, building a 90-second gap with two laps to go before holding off a talented peleton in hot pursuit coming into the final corner. Bell, who represented Canada on the track at the 2008 Beijing Games, finished the 140-kilometer race in three hours, 18 minutes and 43.7 seconds – just five seconds ahead of the chase.


"I've never been able to win this road race from a bunch sprint so you've got to try another way," said Bell, who did win the Tour de Delta overall title in 2007 and 2008. "It was fun – everything except maybe coming down the last hill and around the last corner, when I saw those guys bearing down on me. I was having a good time up until then."


Bell's Kelly Benefits teammate David Veilleux followed up a victory in the Canadian Criterium Championship on Saturday night by winning a bunch sprint to take second place on Sunday. That also meant a 6-second time bonus for Veilleux, which was just enough to edge out Pro Tour rider Svein Tuft of Garmin-Transitions for the overall Tour de Delta title.


It was similar to a night earlier, when Veilleux broke away from Tuft into the final lap to claim the Brenco Criterium and a National Championship.


"Last night I made up some time on Svein with time bonuses and I had a little gap at the end (of the Criterium), so I knew today if I won it or got second in the race, then with time bonuses I would be able to pass him in general classification," said Veilleux, a 22-year-old Quebec native who also claimed the Tour de Delta top young rider (under-23) award.


Teammate Ryan Anderson, who was the defending Tour de Delta overall champion, led Veilleux out perfectly, and then managed to hold off a hard-charging Andrew Pinfold of United Healthcare by two-tenths of a second to claim third place in Sunday's White Spot Road Race.


"Today was a really great day for the team," said Anderson.


The biggest challenge figured to come from Tuft and Garmin-Transitions teammate Christian Meier, the only other Pro Tour rider in the field.


The race started with three locals breaking early during four and a half laps in North Delta. But seven riders, including Bell, bridged up through the flats, and the 10-man break pushed the lead to three minutes as they crossed into Tsawwassen for 10 laps of the final 8-kilometer circuit.


Led largely by Meier, the peleton tried to chip away at the lead. But with Kelly Benefits teammates helping hold it back, they couldn't catch Bell, who followed an attack from a Rubicon ORBEA up a big hill, and then just kept going on his own when that rider began to falter at the top.


"For us to win today against Kelly Benefits, with all their strong guys, was going to be tough," said Meier. "I rode all day trying to keep the break a manageable distance towards the end. If I can get Svein close to them with 20 kilometers to go, he's one of the strongest guys in the world, you know, so I'm quite sure he could take care of himself the last 20 km."


Tuft, who won his third straight Canadian Time Trial Championship last month, certainly made it close, helping cut almost a minute and a half out of the lead over the final 16-kilometers. But the effort didn't leave him with enough left against a handful of great sprinters like Veilleux.

"The last few laps were difficult with a strong guy like Zach out there still going and not many guys willing to pitch a hand in the chase," said Tuft. 
"Christian was unreal today. I don't think I've ever seen a guy ride just by himself that long, that hard, at that pace. The break had 10 guys riding their hearts out and Christian was bringing them back slowly but surely."

Even Veilleux wasn't sure if Bell would be able to stay away. But since he was staying at Bell's place, he wasn't going to lead any chases.

"I would have slept in the street tonight," he joked. "Sometimes I was looking and thought ‘oh, he's gone' and then I'd see him and think he was coming back. I didn't really know. It depends what the guys do in the peleton, but it wasn't very organized so I knew chances of him staying out there were very strong. So it was a perfect situation for us because Ryan Anderson and I just had to sit back and wait for the sprint."

The women's finish was more dramatic, with a sprint after 85 kilometers.

Mighty Riders' Claire Cameron, was born and raised in Ladner, jumped past Total Restoration teammates Laura Brown and Jasmin Glaesser with 200 meters left down the final straightaway to win the White Spot Road Race. With her parents and sister cheering loudly, she finished the 11-lap race around Tsawwassen in two hours, 22 minutes and 27.8 seconds.

"I know this course and I really like this course," said an excited Cameron, who grew up working as a lifeguard at the recreation center behind the finish line. "My parents are here, my sister is here. They barely ever come to watch me and so just the atmosphere and I know the course."

Cameron, 29, got to know the course – and cycling – after hurting her knee nine years ago playing soccer and being told to rehab on a bike.

"I used to train here," she said. "The first time I had to get off my bike to go up this hill (past the finish line) the very first time I ever rode."

On Sunday, she used that hill to break away with two laps left. Four other riders gave chase and reeled her, so Cameron, who is doing a bachelor of education at UBC, stuck close to the Total Restoration wheels.

 "I was third wheel going into the sprint and I was like just go, hit it hard and I got it," said Cameron, who went to the 2004 Athens Paralympics as a pilot for a visually impaired Canadian rider and will attend a national track team training camp later this week. Brown will be there too, and she'll have a handful of new Tour de Delta jerseys to choose from.

Brown's second-place finish Sunday allowed her to retain the overall lead she took by winning the MK Delta Prologue on Friday night and kept with a second-place finish in the Canadian Criterium Championship Saturday.

"It was a bit of a drag race," Brown said of Sunday's finish. "I did a lot of work to try to keep it away and Jasmine is a really good time trail rider so we were time trialing with a lap and a half to go. We tried to do a lead out here but Claire had a bit more in her legs for the sprint."

Brown, who has had success on the international track stage, also won the top young rider award, and Total Restorations took the team title.

"I'm so stoked," said Brown, a Calgary native who lived in Vancouver now. "Individual GC, team GC, young rider, some stage wins – we almost won everything possible and I couldn't have done it without my team."
 
BC Superweek continues with the 31st anniversary of the historic Tour de White, another three-stage race running from July 16 to 18.
For more BC Superweek information visit www.bcsuperweek.ca or to arrange for photos or interviews contact Kevin Woodley, Media Relations Coordinator, at 604-828-5842 or woodyz@telus.net.

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