Former Canadian National Road Race Champion Ryan Roth wins White Spot | Delta Road Race
Tsawwassen, BC – Ryan Roth lists a burger, fries, and shake as his favourite food in his bio on the Silber Pro Cycling website, so perhaps it’s extremely appropriate that he won the White Spot | Delta Road Race on Sunday. The BC-based restaurant has long been a supporter of the Tour de Delta and is famous the world over for its legendary burger.
No word on whether or not the 32-year-old from Kitchener, Ontario indulged after the race, but Roth certainly had a lot to celebrate after breaking away and cruising across the finish line 10.4 seconds ahead of Canadian National Road Race Champion Bruno Langlois and two-time White Spot | Delta Road Race winner Steve Fisher.
“I had fantastic legs today and I really wanted to be in the breakaway, so I went all in on that early and it didn’t work and then it didn’t work again, but luckily it played out pretty well,” beamed Roth after finishing the 12 lap, 155.4 kilometre trek.
The race had a unique feel as it saw a massive group of riders go off at the beginning, and Roth’s Silber team had some representation in the break, including Elliot Doyle who won Friday’s MK Delta Lands Criterium, and just decided to jump across at that point.
“There was a few of us, but we didn’t panic, we had two guys up there in that group, including some speed with Elliot,” explained Roth, who is a former Canadian National Road Race Champion himself. “We really wanted to have three instead of two, just to have better numbers and luckily Will Routley and I, and a few of us guys bridged across and from there it was like ‘chop it down’ and play out the finish.”
With this being the third year with UCI designation for the White Spot | Delta Road Race, the calibre of cycling just continues to improve. Roth makes no bones about the fact that his team was here to get the valuable UCI points.
“The UCI points are really important. For this week, it was the biggest objective for me because of the points. We want to try and win the UCI America Tour and the points really help us with invitations to the bigger tours like the Tour of California and races like that in the future,” he said.
For 37-year-old veteran Langlois of Team Garneau Quebecor, the red maple leaf on the Canadian National Road Race Champion might as well have been a target because there’s extra attention and motivation that goes along with it.
“When you get that jersey, you have to show that you deserve it. I’m happy to have the jersey and I wear it pretty proudly. That’s why I attacked so much, that’s why I went up the road, to give 110 percent to represent my country and that jersey, so today that’s what I did. I got second and that’s okay, Ryan was just stronger than me today,” said Langlois, who lists hunting and fishing as two of his interests outside of cycling.
Being from Bellingham, Washington, Fisher is pretty close to calling the White Spot | Delta Road Race a hometown course. It’s only an hour’s drive for Fisher and he’s also won the race twice – in 2012, and the first year it received UCI designation, in 2013. There’s just something about riding in Tsawwassen that clicks with the 26-year-old, even if he can’t quite put his finger on it.
“It’s hard to say, I’m happy to have a team here this time so I can do this road race – I missed the last two years. It was pretty on from the start today and found myself in the right place again so I’m happy about that,” he said, admitting that he was hoping for a sprint at the end. “I think my chances in a sprint are pretty good among that group, but Ryan and Bruno were both riding very strong today so I’ve got to hand it to Ryan for going away when he did. He was clearly the strong man and deserved the win.”