March 29, 2012 (Vancouver, BC) – The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix presented by Allstream unveiled the largest criterium winning prizes in North America today, with the men’s winner to receive $15,000 and the women’s winner to receive $8,000. With the addition of the criterium’s $40,000 total prize purse, the Vancouver-based BC Superweek (July 6-15) now offers more than $100,000 in cash prizes along with several thousand more in primes.

For Global Relay CEO Warren Roy, the decision to offer North America’s biggest winning prizes for a criterium is a reflection of the world-leading technology services firm’s corporate philosophy.

“To attract the best people, whether it’s the best and brightest in the high tech sector, or the fastest riders in North America, you need to recognize and reward talent,” said Roy. “Like the other races in BC Superweek, we plan to do that in numerous ways, including a great prize list.”

According to BC Superweek Race Director Mark Ernsting, BC Superweek offers numerous other benefits for North America’s top men’s and women’s teams, including:

Great Money:
In addition to the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix ($40,000 criterium), BC Superweek includes the three-stage Tour de Delta ($25,000), the UBC Grand Prix ($10,000 criterium), the Giro di Burnaby ($15,000 criterium) and the three-stage Tour de White Rock ($15,000). The series’ six criteriums typically feature thousands more in primes, including crowd primes that have reached $2,500.

Great Competition
BC Superweek is a chance for riders to test themselves against North America’s best. On the men’s side, recent competitors include local hero Svein Tuft, Chris Horner, Tyler Farrar, Andrew Pinfold, Hilton Clarke, Zach Bell and Gord Fraser. On the women’s side we’ve recently seen Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Shelley Olds, Alison Sydor, Gina Grain, Kelly Benjamin and Joelle Numainville.

Great Crowds
Canadians love their bike racing and BC Superweek is one of the most anticipated sporting events in the Greater Vancouver area. In downtown Vancouver, twenty to thirty thousand spectators are expected to cheer on riders at the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix, with thousands more spectators lining various other Lower Mainland courses throughout BC Superweek’s nine days of racing. On top of that, BC Superweek’s loud crowds are known for raising more than just their voices. BC Superweek’s always hefty crowd primes recently included a $2,500 whopper won by Andrew Pinfold at the Tour de Delta’s Brenco Criterium.

Perfect Race Calendar Timing
With a July 6th start date, BC Superweek’s fits perfectly on the racing calendar for men’s and women’s teams already headed west for Boise’s Exergy Twilight Criterium and Oregon’s Cascade Cycling Classic. For USA Crits competitors, BC Superweek features three crits between West Chester and Boise with $65,000 in cash prizes (UBC Grand Prix-July 10, Gastown Grand Prix-July 11, Giro di Burnaby-July 12)

A Bigger Bang for Team Budgets
BC Superweek helps teams maximize their travel and accommodation budgets with all stages conveniently located in the Vancouver, BC area, and host housing and hotel accomodation available on a first come first serve basis. There are even discounts available for riders and teams taking on all nine stages.

Nine races in 10 Days: Great Racing, Great Savings
BC Superweek delivers near daily racing with nine races over 10 days. In addition to six criteriums (including the high-speed Gastown Grand Prix, with its brick streets and challenging hairpin corner) BC Superweek features one hill climb stage along with the 140-km Tour de Delta White Spot Road Race and the 130-km Tour de White Rock Road Race.

About Global Relay
Founded in 1999, Global Relay is a Gastown-based technology services company that provides the worldwide financial industry with cloud-based message archiving & compliance services.

Global Relay Archive securely captures and preserves email, instant messaging, BlackBerry®, Bloomberg®, Thomson Reuters®, social media and more for regulatory compliance. Users have easy access to messages via smartphones, tablets, Outlook or browsers. Global Relay Message, delivered via cloud computing, provides businesses with the tools to communicate and collaborate while staying compliant — anytime, anywhere.

Global Relay’s 15,000 customers in 90 countries include broker-dealers, hedge funds, investment advisors and public companies, as well as 22 of the top 25 global banks.  Global Relay has offices worldwide, including Vancouver, New York, Chicago, London and Singapore. www.globalrelay.com

About Allstream
Allstream is a subsidiary of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS Allstream). As one of Canada’s leading national communication solutions companies, MTS Allstream provides innovative communications for the way Canadians want to live and work today. The Company has more than 100 years of experience, with 5,500 employees across Canada dedicated to a mission of delivering true value as seen through the eyes of our customers. MTS Allstream has nearly two million total customer connections spanning business customers across Canada and residential consumers throughout the province of Manitoba. The Company’s extensive national broadband and fibre optic network spans almost 30,000 kilometres. Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.’s common shares are listed on Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol: MBT). Customers, stakeholders and investors who want to learn more about MTS Allstream are encouraged to visit: www.mtsallstream.com.

For more information visit Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix and BC SuperWeek.

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