There will be a lot of fast riders on the streets of Burnaby Heights this Thursday.
With $110,000 on the line and some of the top Canadian cyclists and pro 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 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 eighth in the men's omnium in London last summer. The 30-year-old already has four victories this season.
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-yearold Maritimer finished 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 his third season racing professionally in Europe and is coming of an impressive fifth-place showing at the Canadian nationals road race last month.
Edmonton's Ryan Anderson is in his fifth season on the pro cycling circuit. The 25-year-old wore the Climbers Jersey for four stages of the 2010 Tour of California and was a silver medallist at the 2005 and 2009 Canadian road championships.
Sebastian Salas, a 25year-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 Superweek last year in Gastown and in Burnaby, Ken Hanson has had no fewer than seven stage wins or podium appearances this season.
Olympic bronze medallist Gillian Carleton of Victoria tops a strong women's field at B.C. Superweek this year.
The 24-year-old celebrated her first UCI victory in May, taking the win in Stage 5 of the inaugural Tour Languedoc Roussillon in the south of France.
For more, go online to burnabynow.com/sports.
