BC Superweek

Global Relay Brings Bicycle Racing Back to Gastown for 2012 and Beyond

Gastown Technology Services Firm Commits to Multi-year Title Sponsorship of Historic Race 

Vancouver, BC – January 27, 2012 — Global Relay, a Gastown-based technology services firm, today announced a multi-year commitment to bring back the Gastown Grand Prix, (formerly the Tour de Gastown) as Title Sponsor. Wednesday, July 11th, 2012 will mark the revival of this prestigious professional cycling race which ran for 28 years, beginning in 1973.

The event, now named the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix, is a Pro.1/2 Criterium cycling race where male and female riders complete 30 to 50 laps around a 1.2km circuit, reaching speeds of up to 70km/h. The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is proudly supported by Presenting Partner Allstream, Canada’s all-business communications provider, as well as the Gastown Business Improvement Society.

The race will attract elite teams and independent riders at the Pro-Am level from across North America and around the world. Past winners include stars of the cycling world such as the last winners of the event Andrew Pinfold, Gina Grain (2008), as well as internationally renowned riders Lance Armstrong and Alison Sydor (1991).

Race routing for the 2012 event will remain similar to that of previous years, with the course looping around Gastown and the start/finish line situated at the corner of Cambie and Water Streets. The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix will be free for spectators and promises an exhilarating experience for cycling fans.

The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is a part of BC Superweek — a series of several independent events that happen annually around the second week of July in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, including the Tour de Delta, UBC Grand Prix, Giro di Burnaby and Tour de White Rock.

“The announcement of the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is fantastic news for the cycling community and for fans of the sport as it joins the BC Superweek series,” said Mark Ernsting, Race Director. “Gastown has gone without a pro cycling event for several years due to a lack of sponsorship, and now Global Relay is stepping in to fill that gap.”

The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix continues a rich tradition of professional cycling in Gastown. Since its inaugural year in 1973, the race has become one of Canada’s best-loved professional cycling events thanks to its challenging course, long history and historic location.

“When I was beginning to race back in the 1980’s, Gastown was THE race that all local cyclists dreamed of winning,” said Brian Walton, the 1988 Tour de Gastown winner. “Gastown gave me motivation to ride in the rain and snow, so I could one day stand on the top of the podium. It was a benchmark for greatness. It was a goal. It was the platform. It was a race that developed champions and built a community of athletes that succeeded on and off the bike. And now, it is back. What a great day and future for all! I look forward to watching now and the feeling it inspires in future athletes.”

This community event will be coordinated with the help of many talented volunteers. Those interested in getting involved can visit globalrelayggp.org/get-involved/volunteer/

With its headquarters at 220 Cambie Street, Global Relay has been a part of the Gastown community since its founding in 1999. By committing to sponsorship of this event from 2012 and beyond, the company aims to make a lasting contribution to Gastown residents and business, and to the cycling community.

The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is presented with the generous support of the Gastown Business Improvement Area.

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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.

 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:
www.globalrelayggp.org 

Fact Sheet

Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix

Basic Information

• Event name: Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix (formerly known as the Tour de Gastown)

• Race date: early evening of July 11th, 2012

• Location: a 1.2km loop around Gastown streets, with the start/finish line at the corner of Cambie & Water streets

• Cost: Free for spectators

• The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is a part of BC Superweek — a series of several independent events that happen annually around the second week of July in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, including the Tour de Delta, UBC Grand Prix, Giro di Burnaby and Tour de White Rock.

 Event Type

• Level: Pro. 1/2 event, attracting local and international elite Pro-Am athletes

• Distance: 1.2km circuit. Men: 50 laps; Women: 30 laps

• Style: Criterium

Sponsorship

• Global Relay is bringing the race back for 2012 as Title Sponsor. Global Relay is a Gastown-based technology firm providing compliance messaging and archiving services to the financial world.

• Allstream, Canada’s all-business communications provider, is Presenting Partner.

• Presented with the support of the Gastown Business Improvement Society.

• Also supported by Promosapien — Promotional Gear for the Human Race.

 History

 • The late Roger Sumner, a well-known cyclist and Vancouver dentist, organized the very first Gastown Grand Prix in July, 1973. 5,000 spectators turned out to cheer on the competitors, most of whom where locals. As the event continued to run annually over the next twenty years, it garnered international renown and attracted cyclists, spectators and media from across Canada and around the world. Gastown’s historic location and cobblestone streets quickly made the race a darling of the North American cycling circuit.

 • A lack of sponsorship funding brought a temporary end to the Gastown Grand Prix in 1993. Nine years later, the Gastown Business Improvement Association, along with a coalition of sponsors, rallied to revive the race, launching it afresh in July, 2002. Crowds of up to 45,000 lined Water, Cordova and Carroll streets annually to witness the intensity of nearly 200 cyclists from more than 25 teams speeding around the circuit.

• In 2002, the race became the centerpiece of BC Superweek — a diverse series of cycling events in Greater Vancouver including the Tour de Delta, the UBC Grand Prix, the Giro di Burnaby and the Tour de White Rock. 2008 saw the Gastown race’s induction into the USA CRITS, a prestigious series of criterium races spanning 11 cities across North America. Despite its popularity, the race fell victim to the economic downturn of 2008 and was again called off.

Global Relay, a Gastown-based technology firm, made a multi-year commitment in 2012 to bring the race back to Vancouver once again for the 2012 cycling season and beyond.

 Past Winners

Andrew Pinfold, Gina Grain (2008)

Lance Armstrong, Alison Sydor (1991)

Brian Walton, Aine O’Hagen (1988)

For a complete list of past winners, see http://globalrelayggp.org/about-the-event/past-winners/

 For More Information:

www.globalrelayggp.org 

 Media Contacts: 

Kevin Woodley, Media | BC Superweek
604.828.5842 

or 

Matt Davis, Media | Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix
media@globalrelayggp.org

It took a photo finish review, but Cameron MacKinnon threw his bike to narrowly edged out Bailey McKnight of at the line to win the $15,000 2011 Giro di Burnaby on Thursday, capping a great night for the local teams at BC Superweek.

Justin Kerr, MacKinnon’s teammate on locally based H&R BLOCK, finished third in the mad dash to the finish line, less than a tenth of a second ahead of a group led by Ryan Anderson of Steve Bauer’s SpiderTech squad and an impressive international of top professionals like USA criterium champ Daniel Holloway, former Canadian road race champion Will Routley, one-time track champions from Denmark (Michael Smith Larsen), and Australia (Tommy Nankervis).

That MacKinnon won the final sprint shouldn’t be that shocking. The 26-year-old Calgary native has gold and silver medals at the Pan-American Championships on the track in 2007, and has a couple of national titles as well. The challenge in his first year of competitive road racing has been setting up for that finish.

“A sprint finish is kind of home territory but the process of getting to that finish is brand new,” said MacKinnon, “And a lot of hard work so the boys on my team have really helped me a lot and helped me develop on the road this season.”

MacKinnon completed 30 laps around the 1.85-kilometer loop of North Burnaby in one hour, 12 minutes and 51.80 seconds, with a crowd of 4,000 cheering the sprint finish after the Ferrari pace car pulled ahead down the last straightaway.

McKnight, who lost by a wheel’s width, rides for the local amateur Trek Red Truck amateur team, which also produced the winner and third place finisher in the 20-lap women’s race. Julia Garnet won by almost a minute ahead of Jenny Lehman of the Local Ride Racing team, with Trek Red Truck’s Karlee Gendron winning a pack sprint more than two minutes later to claim third place.

“This is huge, probably the biggest event I have been to this year,” McKnight said of the 2001 Giro di Burnaby, which returned to the BC Superweek calendar after two years off. “It’s very well organized, the crowd was nuts, and to be able to roll the breakaway like that with the guys we’ve had, it was just awesome.”

The six-rider break built its lead as high as 25 seconds. But in the final four laps it slipped to 18, to 13, to 12, all the way down to eight seconds for the final time around the closed street circuit. For a while down the back straightaway it looked like they’d got caught, but they managed to stay ahead – by one second.

“It’s tough not to worry when you see the gap coming down and with the boys on the break sprinting for primes it got a little unsteady,” said MacKinnon. “I just wanted to keep it rolling smooth and try to conserve and carry it to the finish.”

McKnight, also from Calgary, wasn’t far behind, a feat that’s more impressive given he is coming back from breaking a clavicle and collapsing a lung back in April. It’s McKnight’s third year on the road, his first on Trek Red Truck.

The 21-year-old knows how important BC Superweek is to a local team that has graduated riders like Svein Tuft, Routley, Anderson, Marsh Cooper (Kelly Benefit Strategies_OptumHealth) and Nic Hamilton (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) to top North American teams – and Europe — over the past decade plus.

“It’s huge,” McKnight said. “We’re definitely looking for a big result his week and looking for a win, but photo finish with a millimeter of a tire length at the line is pretty close and to have our name on the podium at BC Superweek is great.”

Trek Red Truck has been a fixture on the women’s stage so far, winning four of the first five events and the overall title at the Tour de Delta as well.

On Thursday night, it was Garnet’s turn to shine.

The 19-year-old Saskatoon native won the 20-lap women’s race by nearly a full minute, jumping into a two-rider break four laps in and pulling away with four laps to go. Garnet, who won the 2009 and 2010 Canadian National Junior Time Trial championships, finished the 37-kilometer race in 54 minutes, 50.6 seconds.

Jenny Lehman, who led the attack, finished alone in second place just over 44 seconds behind for the Local Ride Racing/Dr. Vie Superfoods+ team.

“That wasn’t the game plan for me to get away, it was just cover moves and keep on Local Ride,” Garnet said. “(Lehman) went first after a good attack from one of her teammates and then she went through to counter and I just followed on her wheel. We worked pretty well together for probably a good 10 laps, trading off.”

Then Garnet took off, turning the final four laps into one of those time trials she is so comfortable in, following the bright red Ferrari all the way to the finish line.

“It’s a great car to chase around – I’ve never seen a Ferrari lead a race before,” said Garnet, a 19-year-old in her fourth year of cycling, and first on the Trek Red Truck team. “I just didn’t want to finish in a sprint because I wasn’t sure how I was sprinting and I thought she could out-sprint me so I attacked her.”

It caught Lehman, a 23-year-old from Kamloops, off guard.

“I’m pretty new to this, definitely a lack of experience played a part,” Lehman, in just her second year of racing, said. “It was hard for me because I am not the best time trial rider and that’s’ what it is riding out there on your own, so I was hoping it would be left later and out sprint her or attack her over and over again. She just got the best of me at the end I was dying a thousand deaths.”

Gendron won a sprint for third place, adding to her third place finish at the UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, and a pair of criterium wins – and the overall title – at the Tour de Delta last weekend. Gendron — and the rest of the pack — was more than two minutes behind Garnet, her teammate on Trek Red Truck, which has won all but one of the first five events at BC Superweek.

“It’s huge for our team,” said Garnet. “To win as a home team feels real good.” 

BC Superweek continues with the 32nd annual Tour de White Rock, a three-stage race that starts Friday night and continues through Sunday morning.

Click here to see the final White Rock Omnium results…

Click to view results of the White Rock Criterium…

~ Canadian Olympic favorite Laura Brown win’s women’s race in a Local Ride Racing sweep

 Will Routley is back from Europe to race BC Superweek and a familiar spot at the historic Tour de White Rock: Atop the podium at the Homelife Realty Hillclimb.

It’s a familiar spot for the Whistler native, who won the leg-numbing 700-meter ascent up a 16 per cent grade from White Rock beach in 2007 and again last summer. That experience helps, said Routley, but it doesn’t make it easier. 

“Every time I do it, it feels like the hardest thing I’ve ever done it in my life,” said Routley, in his first season racing for the Team SpiderTech powered by c10, the Steve Bauer-founded team with the goal of competing at the Tour de France.  

“It’s pretty painful. It’s just a savage hill and you go as hard as you can possibly go. You better have the legs because there is no faking it. There’s no way to get up there unless you suffer and you have the legs, it’s as simple as that.” 

Routley and the rest of the finalists have to go up twice. Riders make the lung-melting ascent race against the clock two at a time the first time, and the top-5 get to – or have to, maybe? — do it again in a drag race for the podium. 

Hamilton went up with Routley in the first heat too, which he said helped a lot this year. Because last year Hamilton was the fastest up in the time trial, but had nothing left for the second sprint, settling instead for second place.  

“This year was a lot different because I was a lot more confident in myself and in Will’s ability to pace it,” said Hamilton, who finished just behind Routley both times up, posting the fastest times in the original heat at 1:45. “Last year I went as hard as I could the first round and was done, cooked for the second time. This year I kind of held back on the first round and had a little more gas left.” 

Sebastian Salas from Team H&R BLOCK finished third, followed by Bailey McKnight of Trek Red Truck, who was coming off a second place finish at the Giro di Burnaby criterium Thursday night. Cameron McKinnon, who won the Giro for H&R BLOCK, was fifth, followed by Colrer Young, who had the misfortune of making the final heat after being one of the last riders up in the first heat. 

“It’s never easy,” Routley said. 

Ironically Routley was riding for Jelly Belly Pro Cycling presented by Kanda last season. Hamilton was racing for the local Trek Red Truck amateur squad last year, but moved up to the Jelly Belly team after Routley moved on. 

That he moved on to SpiderTech and his first spring season racing in Europe, where he finished second at the 206-kilometer Tro Bro Leon race in France in mid-April, meant Routley came home with a target on his back. But the 2010 Canadian Road Race champion — he was second to SpiderTech teammate and Olympian Svein Tuft this summer — wasn’t going to give up his title easily.  

“Nic definitely wanted some redemption because he posted the fastest time last year the first time around so he was pushing it pretty hard the second time up,” he said. “It still means a lot to me. You race all over the world and some are big, international profile, and some are local and some are in between — like this is still high profile for a local race. You have a target on your back. Everybody wants to win and if they beat me it maybe makes it more valuable because I’ve won it before and I’ve won bigger races so they are gunning for you.” 

In the women’s race, it was a case of the Local Ride Racing/Dr. Vie Superfoods+ team gunning for a Trek Red Truck squad that was dominating BC Superweek. 

The result was a clean sweep of the podium at Friday’s Hillclimb. 

Laura Brown, a three-time World Cup medalist and 2012 Canadian Olympic favorite on the track, was the fastest up both times. The 25-year-old Calgary native ripped up the hill in two minutes, 18.62 seconds the first time, then narrowly clipped teammate Jasmine Glaesser, 19, in a photo finish. 

“I train for 3 kilometers (on the track), which is 3:20, and this is 2:18 so it feels like the same efforts, from standstill maximum effort,” Brown said. “So for me this is something I can do well at, so just go for it. We all just decided to go for it.” 

Brown was just happy to get a break before they had to go for it a second time. In the past, the women have raced the final heat before the men do their initial run, a schedule that left one national-level Australian cyclist in need of medical attention a couple years ago. This time the women’s final went after the men finished their initial heat, which also gave the men a little more recovery time. 

“Oh my goodness that was nice,” Borwn said. “Because it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to cool down and flush the lactic acid out of your legs, so to get a proper cool down, take a moment and get ready to go again was really nice.” 

Local Ride teammate Jenny Lehmann, who was second to Trek Red Truck’s Julia Garnet in Thursday’s Giro di Burnaby, finished just behind in third. Megan Rathwell of Glotman Simpson Cycling was fourth, and Trek Red Truck’s Kristine Brynjolfson finished fifth, the first time Red Truck didn’t make a podium. 

“Local Ride Racing is so strong, but we’ve just had some troubles tactically,” said Brown. “We weren’t sprinting to the best of our abilities with the timing of sprints and tactics. But clearly this is test of strength and we dominated. Tour de White Rock is a bloody hard race, so hopefully it’s more of a feat of strength now and we will dominate and it’s going to be a big weekend for us.” 

The 32^nd Tour de White Rock continues with the Choice’s Market Criterium on Saturday, and concludes the historic Peace Arch News Road Race on Sunday, which is also the final of eight races in the $65,000 BC Superweek series. 

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~ Whistler native on a break from racing for Canada’s top team, SpiderTech, overseas

Will Routley’s experience growing up mountain biking in Whistler came in handy during his first taste of professional road racing in Europe this season. 

It seems all those lengthy climbs made it easier to ascend – and descend – a steep learning curve against the best cyclists in the world as part of SpiderTech, a team founded by Canadian cycling legend Steve Bauer with the goal of one day competing at Grand Tour level, including the prestigious Tour de France. 

For Routley, who cut his teeth as a road racer at BC Superweek and won the Canadian National Road Racing championship last season, it was a chance to finally experience world class racing on the other side of the Atlantic. 

“I’ve been over at mountain bike World Championships as a junior and a couple national team events as an under-23, but never any real pro events so this was the first taste of the pro European peleton and it has been a steep learning curve to say the least,” said Routley, who is back training in Whistler for the summer, and planning to make his 2011 BC Superweek debut Thursday night at the Giro di Burnaby, and then race all of the historic 32nd Tour de White Rock. 

“The biggest difference is racing here in North America, fitness and race tactics are 90 per cent of it, but over in Europe you have to have skills because it is just that much more aggressive and technical, and you have to have experience because the courses and the competition are just that much tougher and more difficult. We’d turn onto tiny, narrow roads that were only two riders wide, and the descents were so much faster. I’ve never descended so fast in my life, so it’s a little bit scary. Everything is more difficult. There’s not much room for error.” 

Maybe all that time racing down Whistler mountains paid off, or maybe Routley is just a really fast learner, because he was the only Team SpiderTech rider to reach the podium during their inaugural spring schedule in Europe, finishing second at the 206-kilometer Tro Bro Leon race in France in mid-April. 

“It’s a challenge but I got a little taste of success,” said Routley, now 28 but just seven years into road racing. “It’s like golf – you play a whole round and only have that one perfect shot but you get a taste of it and you want more.” 

Routley will get that chance with SpiderTech, which is powered by C10, a group of 10 Canadian companies backing Bauer’s attempts to build a domestic squad capable of competing with, and ultimately beating, the world’s best cyclists on the world’s biggest stage. He is scheduled to compete at a pair of big ProTour races in Quebec in September before returning to Europe next spring, and also has his sights on a spot with Team Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. A second place finish as part of a SpiderTech sweep at the Canadian Road Race National Championships last week certainly can’t hurt Routley’s cause. 

Routley finished between SpiderTech’s Svein Tuft and Zach Bell, both former Olympians expected to represent Canada again in 2012, and both graduates of the lower mainland racing scene and the BC Superweek racing series. 

“The Olympics are a goal – there’s no reason I shouldn’t be on the short list,” said Routley, who may have to overcome attempts to build a Canadian squad specific to a London course expected to be flat and better suited to bigger riders. “I may be a tough spot as more of an all-around rider, but if it’s a tough, aggressive race then it’s perfect for me, flat or not. I love that classic style aggressive road racing and I want to go. Certainly I want to compete at the next couple of Olympics.” 

In the meantime, Routley will spend the summer training in Whistler and the fall in the Fraser Valley before returning to Europe. Included in his plans are stops at some of the BC Superweek races along with SpiderTech teammate Ryan Anderson, who is home in Vancouver for the summer. 

The duo plans to ride the BC Superweek races in part because they know how well the eight-race series is run, and partly because the $65,000 in prize money ranks up there with purses at the biggest events in North America. But mostly Routley says they realize how important it was to their development. 

“Over the last few years we’ve all tried to do it as much as we can in order to try and pay it back,” said Routley, who lost a spirited battle to Tuft at last year’s Tour de White Rock Road Race. “These events did a lot for me coming up and getting to race pros from the US as a local guy, that meant a lot. In terms of Canadian cycling it is some of the better racing we have, if not the best. Certainly it is run the best, has better prize purses, and gets quality fields consistently. 

“It’s really important to the development of cycling in Canada.” 

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For more information on BC Superweek and the schedule, please check out the new website at www.bcsuperweek.ca, and to arrange photos of, and interviews with, the cyclists as they are announced, please contact Kevin Woodley at 604-828-5842.