The fastest week in Canadian cycling kicked off Friday with the first of nine races over 10 days at the Tour de Delta.
With $110,000 on the line and some of the top Canadian cyclists and professional American teams, the racing figures to be fast-paced and exciting from start to finish line.
The Giro di Burnaby will follow the Gastown Grand Prix on the streets of Burnaby Heights on Thursday, July 11, beginning with the women's criterium at 6 p.m. The men's race will follow directly afterward.
Among those to watch in the championship field are former Burnaby resident and Olympian Zach Bell, racing for Champion System.
Bell is the 2013 Canadian elite men's national road race champion and also represented Canada at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing seventh in Beijing in the men's points race and 12th in the men's madison. He was eighth in the men's omnium in London last summer. The 30-year-old already has four victories in 2013.
Christian Meier is one of three Canadians to complete in the Grio d'Italia as a member of ORICA-GreenEDGE out of Australia. The 28-year-old from Sussex, New Brunswick has had a strong showing this year, finishing first in both the sprints classification and special sprints classification at the 2013 Volta a Catalunya in March, and was third overall at the Tour de Beauce just last month in Quebec.
Will Routley is in the midst of a third season racing professionally in Europe and is coming of an impressive fifth-place showing at the Canadian nationals road race last month. Routley has been outstanding in the past at B.C. Superweek. The Whistler product won the first stage of the 2008 and 2011 Tour de White Rock as well as the first stage of the 2009 Tour de Delta.
Edmonton's Ryan Anderson is in his fifth season on the professional cycling circuit. A product of the Victoria Academy of Cycling, the 25-year-old wore the Climbers Jersey for 4 stages of the 2010 Tour of California and was a silver medallist at the 2005 and 2009 Canadian national road championships. Locally, he won stage 2 of the 2012 Tour de Delta on the way to a runner-up finish overall and finished second at the Gastown Grand Prix and on Stage 2 of the Tour de White Rock.
Sebastian Salas is in his second year with a Minnesota-based Team after earning a contract with an impressive showing at B.C. Superweek in 2011. Last year, the 25-year-old Vancouverite won the King of the Mountain Jersey as the top climber at the Tour of California, one of the biggest races in North America.
After back-to-back wins at B.C. Superweek last year in the Gastown Grand Prix and Giro di Burnaby, Ken Hanson looks for another solid showing this year. The 31-year-old from San Diego is having another good year, with no fewer than seven stage wins or podium appearances. Along with teammates Anderson and Salas, Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies is one team to keep an eye on throughout Superweek.
Nic Hamilton was part of Team Canada's third-place finish two weeks ago at the Tour de Beauce. The Calgarian is part of Team Canada's Tier 3 national road team and the only Canadian member of the Jelly Belly p/b Kenda pro team. He's spent much of his three-year professional career racing in China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
Ben Chaddock, a Whistler native with a downhill skiing background, burst onto the scene by knocking off Svein Tuft in the Tour de Delta Prologue in 2010, raising eyebrows in the cycling community. He overcame a serious form of childhood asthma to excel in cycling, which he discovered while at college in Washington's Whitman College. The 28-year-old won the Canadian Criterium Championship in Quebec last year.
\Australian Tommy Nankervis first came to Superweek in 2005 to jumpstart his professional road cycling career, and returned in 2011 to win the second-stage of the Tour de Delta, beating multiple-time Superweek winner Andrew Pinfold in a late sprint. Nankervis was back on the podium last year, taking second place at the Giro di Burnaby and third place at the Tour de Delta.
Olympian Gillian Carleton of Victoria tops the women's field at B.C. Superweek this year.
Carleton won bronze at last year's London Olympics in the team pursuit with Tara Whitten and Jasmin Glaesser. The 24-year-old is in her first road season as a professional rider and member of the Specialized-lululemon professional women's team. She celebrated her first UCI victory in May, taking the win in Stage 5 of the inaugural Tour Languedoc Roussillon in the south of France.
A member of last year's Canadian Olympic team, Jolle Numainville finished 12th in the women's road race in London. The 25-year-old from Laval, Que. comes into Superweek on a roll as she captured both the Canadian national time trial and road race championships last month in her home province. In fact, Numainville hasn't been off the podium in 2013, with second-place finishes in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, Chrono Gatineau and the Grand Prix cycliste de Gatineau.
Leah Kirchmann is another marquee rider in the women's field at B.C. Superweek. The 23-year-old was second only to teammate Numainville in the road race at the nationals last month and also finished fifth in the time trials. Kirchmann also won silver at the Pan Am championships - road race last year. She's been on the podium with no worse than second-place finishes in four out of five races this year. The Winnipeg native is a three-time Canadian criterium national champion (2013, 2011, 2010).
Lex Albrecht is one professional athlete who doesn't mind using her stature for a good cause. As a member of the NOW (No Opportunity Wasted) and Novartis for MS team, the Barrie, Ont. product is on a mission to further awareness and deepen understanding about Multiple Sclerosis. Albrecht was the 2012 Champion of Qubec, 2011 Canadian Vice-Champion and has represented Canada at the world championships. Her most recent podium finish was winning the Grand Prix Granby in May.
A former elite triathlete who spent 12 years as a technical advisor to the CEO of Microsoft before making the jump to full-time professional cycling three years ago, Rhae Shaw is coming off an overall win at the Second Ascent Ballard Criterium in Seattle last month and a third-place finish at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in California this past April. The 38-year-old 2012 Canadian criterium champion has four podium finishes this year. She was also seventh at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships time trial.
