July 18, 2010 (White Rock, BC) – Svein Tuft made it look easy, but insisted it wasn’t. Tuft put on a clinic at the Tour de White Rock Saturday night, lapping the field en route to winning the Maximum Collision Criterium. A Langley native who now races at the world’s highest level on Garmin-Transitions’ Pro Tour team, Tuft finished 60 laps around the 1-kilometer course in one hour, eight minutes and 24 seconds.

“It’s really difficult. There are times on the (uphill) backstretch where you are wondering how many times can I do this,” said Tuft. “That back stretch is hard. Every time up you have to stay concentrated, stay focused and keep on top of that gear, otherwise you crack.”

Tuft last won the White Rock criterium in 2006. Since then he’s set a Canadian record with seventh place at the 2008 Olympic Time Trial and win a silver medal at the 2009 World Championships. But it was his performance at the 21-stage, 3,485-kilometer Giro d’Italia in May that made Saturday’s race feel a lot easier than it really was.

“Those days suffering set you up for this and you think that’s not so bad,” Tuft said of the Giro, which included more than 4,200 meters (14,000 feet) of climbs on the second-to-last stage. “I only have to race an hour here and there are days at the Giro where you feel like that in the first hour of a six hour day. This effort is very concentrated. I’ll never say it’s easy, but there are days in the Giro where you feel like that for six hours, so mentally it prepares you to handle this.”
Jamie Sparling of Total Restorations Cycling and Christian Meier, Tuft’s Garmin-Transitions teammate, also passed the peleton to finish second and third respectively — 22 and 24 seconds off the winning pace.

“Svein is off the front so I wasn’t going to come up with a big group, but Jamie and I got up so if I can get to Svein we are 2-on-1 and our chances are pretty good,” Meier said. “Jamie was rolling strong.”

Tuft was part of an early three-man breakaway that grew to five riders 22 laps into the race through the streets of White Rock. But Tuft took off to win a crowd prime bonus on the next lap and never looked back, building a 20-second lead on the peleton in just five laps. Meier and Sparling took off shortly after that, but never caught Tuft, who lapped the peleton with 13 laps left and added a $920 crowd prime before cruising to victory. For Tuft it’s all part of preparation for more racing in Europe late this summer and the World Championships in Italy.

“I don’t think you get much better training for time trial then a circuit like this,” he said. “So I just came out here to give it everything.”

Joelle Numainville took a similar approach to the women’s race with similar results, though her domination took a different form.

Numainville, a Montreal native who won the Canadian Road Race title last month in Edmonton, won five of six prime laps. But after burning out while setting the pace in her first time up in the Hillclimb on Friday night and settling for third in the second race up, the question was whether Numainville would have enough left to win the Criterium.

The answer was yes, as the Webcor Builders professional won another sprint to the finish less than a second ahead of both Andrea Bunnin, a rider on the local dEVo development team, and Leah Kirchmann of Vancouver’s Trek Red Truck racing, who won the Canadian Criterium championship in a sprint at the Tour de Delta last weekend.

“Yesterday I was disappointed; I had the fastest time up the hill first time and second time just cracked,” Numainville said after finishing the 30-kilometer race in just 40 minutes and 28.7 seconds. “So I really waned to win this criterium. It’s my thing, the sprinting.”

Like Tuft, Numainville said it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“I was tired at the end,” said Numainville, who was at a National team track training camp in Burnaby this week, is on Canada’s short list for the 2010 World Championships, and also hopes to race at the 2012 Olympics in London. “At the beginning I had a really big gap and as the race went on, the gap got smaller and smaller. With two laps to go I was red zone and I was thinking `l can do it. One lap and it’s over.’ I had some juice left, but I wanted those primes.”

Numainville will wear the leader’s jersey when the 31st Tour de White Rock wraps up with the Peace Arch News Road Race on Sunday morning. But instead of Tuft, it will be Nic Hamilton of the local Trek Red Truck team that wears the men’s leader jersey on severe climbs at both ends of the scenic start-finish line on White Rock beach.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted,” said Hamilton. “My first race as a cat 2 was this race and that’s always something special for a rider so to be able to be back three years later and don the leaders jersey is quite a good feeling. To me it kind of confirms what I always believed in myself. In this field it creates more confidence in myself.”

For more BC Superweek information visit www.bcsuperweek.ca.
More Greg Descantes photos here.

Results

Men Cat 3/4

1. Graham Fox (Can) Independent 38:56.9
2. Raphael Lalumiere (Can) Russ Hays Bike Shop
3. Dustin Brons (Can) dEVo 38:59.3
4. Fergus Lavelle (Can) dEVo Escape Velocity
5. Gregg Elias (Can) Team Coastal
6. Tony Zackery (Usa) CVC
7. Cid Martinez-Arroyo (Bol) Independent
8. Shawn Courtney (Can) Tripleshot Cycling 39:02.3
9. Eric Kameka (Can) Escape Velocity/Shore to Shore 39:03.6
10. Alex Hui (Can) Russ Hays Cycling Club
11. Bryan Gallant (Can) Escape Velocity 39:05.8
12. Ted Matson (Can) Daryl-Evans Racing
13. Simon Sterling (Can) Russ Hays Bike Shop
14. Scott Macdonald (Can) Independent 39:08.8
15. Joshua Weiss (Can) Daryl-Evans Racing
16. James Thompson (Can) Independent 39:16.8
17. Robert Bescott (Can) CVC 39:46.0
18. Steve Cohen (Can) Independent 39:52.3
19. Trevor Pearson (Can) dEVo 40:01.6
20. Aaron Quesnel (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling 40:11.1
21. Ben Jackson (Nzl) Escape Velocity 40:32.2
22. Rob Breathet (Can) IRC p/b Bob Cameron Law Corp 40:49.7
DNF Tom Birk (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNF Paul Schincariol (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNF David Broemeling (Can) Escape Velocity
DNF Jeff Hanninen (Can) Daryl-Evans Racing
DNF Pat Poirier (Can) Independent
DNF Kevin Watt (Can) Independent
DNS Wilson Tran (Can) dEVo

Women

1. Joelle Numainville (Can) Webcor Builders 40:28.7
2. Andrea Bunnin (Can) dEVo Escape Velocity
3. Leah Kirchmann (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
4. Shailie Sanbrooks (Can) Russ Hays Cycling Club
5. Jasmin Glaesser (Ger) Total Restoration Cycling Team 40:31.4
6. Amy Dearden (Can) Keller Rohrback
7. Sarah Stewart (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
8. Leslie Vice (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
9. Rachel Canning (Can) Local Ride Racing
10. Heather Kay (Can) United Cycle
11. Jessica Hannah (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
12. Erin Redl (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
13. Annie Ewart (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
14. Lauren Roschen (Usa) Westwood Cycle/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports
15. Rachel Mcbride (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
16. Angela McClure (Aus) Webcor/ Alto Velo
17. Laura Brown (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
18. Megan Rathwell (Can) Aviawest/Blue Competition Cycles
19. Kristine Brynjolfson (Can) Westwood Cycle/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports
20. Morgan Cabot (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
21. Courtney Albert (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
22. Shoshauna Laxson (Usa) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
23. Naomi Cooper (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes 40:37.0
24. Lisa Rogers (Can) Independent 41:16.5
DNF Jennifer Kohm (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNF Jenny Lehmann (Can) Mighty Riders
DNF Marie-Claude Gagnon (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNS Margaret Pugh (Can) Westwood Cycle/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports
DNS Sarah Coney (Can) Independent
DNS Nik Vogler (Can) Westwood Cycle/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports

Men Pro 1/2

1. Svein Tuft (Can) Garmin-Transitions 08:24.0
2. Jamie Sparling (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 08:46.0
3. Christian Meier (Can) Garmin-Transitions 08:48.0
4. Justin Kerr (Can) Team H&R BLOCK 09:25.1
5. Nic Hamilton (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
6. Marsh Cooper (Can) Kelly Benefit Strategies 09:27.0
7. Tim Abercrombie (Can) Garneau Evolution 09:28.0
8. Sebastian Salas (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
9. Adrian Hegyvary (Usa) UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling
10. Morgan Schmitt (Usa) UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling 09:52.1
11. Rory McAdams (Usa) Glotman Simpson Cycling 09:53.1
12. Maurice Worsfold (Can) Team Coastal
13. Shawn Bunnin (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
14. Dan MacDonald (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
15. Marvin Guzman (Can) Independent
16. Adam Thuss (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
17. Cuylar Conly (Can) Westwood Cycle/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports
18. Chris McNeil (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
19. Dustin Andrews (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
20. Dan Skinner (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
21. Chris Worsfold (Can) Team Coastal
22. Boris Martin (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes 09:57.6
23. Cheyne Hoag (Usa) Kelly Benefit Strategies 09:58.8
24. Kyle Buckosky (Can) Team Coastal
25. Stephen Ferris (Can) Calgary Cycle/top gear
26. Jeffrey Werner (Can) Garneau Evolution
27. Garrett McLeod (Can) Team H&R BLOCK 10:00.8
28. Mike Sidic (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
29. Keith Jones (Can) Garneau Evolution
30. Bailey Mcknight (Can) Synergy
31. Bradley Clifford (Can) ERTC Revolution
32. Jason Kilmartin (Can) Balance Point Racing
33. Geoff O’Toole (Can) Garneau Evolution
34. Jesse Reams (Can) Garneau Evolution 10:03.6
35. Matthew O’Hagan (Can) Garneau Evolution
36. Cyrus Kangarloo (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team 10:04.7
37. Roman Kilun (Usa) UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling
38. Christopher McGarity (Can) Garneau Evolution
39. Bart Ludbrook (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
40. Will Routley (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Kenda
41. William Goodfellow (Can) BikeReg.com/Cannondale 10:16.0
42. Aaron Schooler (Can) Team H&R BLOCK 10:24.6
DNF Ryan Anderson (Can) Kelly Benefit Strategies
DNF Alex Candelario (Usa) Kelly Benefit Strategies
DNF Guy Biggar (Can) Garneau Evolution
DNF Curtis Deardon (Can) Garneau Evolution
DNF John Perkins (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNF David Gillam (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNF David Stephens (Can) Team Coastal
DNF Cody Campbell (Can) Trek-Livestrong U23
DNF Hugh Trenchard (Can) Dr. Walker Chiropractor
DNF Steven Devantier (Can) Local Ride Racing
DNF Zachary Young (Can) Local Ride Racing
DNS Andrew Pinfold (Can) UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling
DNS Mark MacDonald (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
DNS Jacob Schwingboth (Can) Team H&R BLOCK
DNS Tyler Trace (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
DNS Mathew Bell (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
DNS Nathan MacDonald (Can) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
DNS Marcel Aarden (Can) Total Restoration Cycling Team
DNS Andrew Kyle (Can) Garneau Evolution
DNS Mike Elliston (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling
DNS Mike Rothengatter (Can) dEVo
DNS Geoff Macdonald (Can) ERTC Revolution
DNS Allan Prazsky (Can) Glotman Simpson Cycling