BC Superweek

~ 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.

~ Exciting, Fan Friendly Criterium replaces Prologue on opening night

As one of Canada’s top sprinters, North Vancouver’s Andrew Pinfold has long been a fixture atop the BC Superweek podiums, with victories at every criterium in the race’s history, including the prestigious old Tour de Gastown in 2009. 

Pinfold actually swept the criteriums that year (For the uninitiated in Vancouver, a criterium, or “crit,” is a multiple-lap race on a shorter closed course through city streets, with riders reaching speeds up to 70 kilometres an hour in tightly packed peletons and around even tighter corners). 

So it figures Pinfold didn’t mind the Tour de Delta switched Friday’s opening race of BC Superweek away from a Prologue, a one-rider-at-a-time time trial format, and added another exciting criterium through the streets of North Delta. 

“From my own perspective, yeah, because I’m probably a little bit better crit rider than I am a time trialist so I’m going to be happy with that change,” said Pinfold, who also won three straight Tour de Delta road races, and spent the early part of this season racing in Europe with his United Healthcare Pro Cycling team. 

“I also think the criterium is going to be more exciting for the people watching just because of the fast nature of criterium racing.” 

That’s good news for cycling fans in Vancouver, because the inaugural UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, July 12, and the return of the Giro di Burnaby two nights later on Thursday, July 14, means five of the eight races at this year’s $65,000 BC Superweek are the spectator friendly, fan favourite criterium format. 

Pinfold’s presence helps assure they will be fast, especially since he is coming to BC Superweek with United Healthcare teammate Christian Meier, who will ride the Tour de Delta this weekend before returning to his base in Girona, Spain to resume a predominantly European racing schedule. 

Pinfold and Meier top the 2011 BC Superweek Riders to Watch list (after the Tour de Delta schedule below) , but they are far from the only ones to keep a close eye on. Not with Team Spidertech riders Will Routley and Ryan Anderson, who like Pinfold and Meier are regulars on the European peleton, also taking part in this year’s racing. With top teams from North America also coming up, it figures to be fast and exciting: 

2011 Tour de Delta Schedule 

MK Delta Criterium – Friday, July 8 
Start time: 6:30pm Women, 7:30pm Men Pro 
Start/finish line: 84 Ave. & 114 St. in North Delta. 

Brenco Criterium – Saturday, July 9
Start time: 6:15 pm Women. 7:20 pm Pro Men
Start/finish Line: Delta St & Bridge St in Ladner Village 

White Spot Road Race – Sunday, July 10, 2011
Start: 9 a.m. Sungod Recreation Centre at 7815 112th Ave in North Delta
Finish line: Winskill Park, 56th Street at 9th Avenue, Tsawwassen 

2011 BC Superweek Riders to Watch

• Christian Meier and Andrew Pinfold
  United Healthcare Pro Cycling
  One of Canada’s top sprinters, Pinfold has been a fixture atop the BC Superweek podium for years, including three straight Tour de Delta road race wins, and victories at every criterium at BC Superweek, including a sweep in 2009 that also featured prestigious Tour de Gastown. Meier, 26, made a name for himself as the 2008 Canadian Road Race champion, and has been mostly competing the past two seasons in Europe. He raced last year on a Garmin Pro Tour squad that also featured current Canadian Tour de France competitor Ryder Hesjedal and Tyler Farrar (a BC Superweek alumnus who won the July 4 Tour de France stage) in 2010 before coming over to United Healthcare this season.
• Will Routley and Ryan Anderson
  Team Spidertech powered by C10
  Routley, who returns from his first spring season in Europe, won the Canadian National Road Race title on his own in 2010 and recently finished second in the 2011 race as part of a clean podium sweep for Team Spidertech, a squad put together by Canadian cycling legend Steve Bauer with the goal of one day soon competing in the Tour de France. At the Canadian championships, Routley finished just behind Olympians Svein Tuft and ahead of Zach Bell, a pair of fellow BC Superweek alums. He will be swapping in and out of this year BC Superweek with Spidertech teammate Anderson, who also raced in Europe this season, and already has a handful of Tour de Delta victories and podiums on his resume. 
• Eric Wohlberg
  Form Fitness
  Even at age 46 years old, Wohlberg is one to watch closely. In addition to three straight Olympics, he won gold medals for Canada in the Time Trial at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 Pan Am Games, a bronze in the Road Race at the at the Commonwealth Games, and was on seven Canadian entries at the World Championships. He has posted 76 stage and overall victories at major US races, and eight straight Canadian Time Trial Championships, a streak that Svein Tuft, a former teammate, is closing in on with a seventh win last week.
• Ben Chaddock
  Team Exergy Pro Cycling
  Chaddock, a Whistler native with a downhill skiing background, burst onto the scene by knocking off seven-time Canadian Time Trial champion and Olympian Svein Tuft in the Tour de Delta Prologue last year, raising the eyebrows and of interest of Team Exergy and earning a spot with them for this season. He also earned some time with the Canadian track team, an opportunity he will continue to pursue. In the meantime, after his first full season of NRC racing in the United States, Chaddock brings a loaded and deep Exergy squad to BC Superweek, including Fast Freddy Rodriguez, a three-time US Road Race National Champion who counts a stage win at the prestigious Giro d’Italia among his many cycling accomplishments, in the hopes of adding some more Tour de Delta titles to the one that jumpstarted his career last year.
• Nic Hamilton
  Jelly Belly Pro Cycling
  This season Nic Hamilton became the latest in a long list of recent graduates from the Vancouver-based Trek Red Truck competitive amateur cycling team to move onto the pro circuit, replacing Will Routley as the lone Canadian on the US-based Jelly Belly Pro Cycling squad. With Jelly Belly teammates Brad Huff and Sean Mazic coming north for support, Hamilton, who finished third overall at the Tour de White Rock last season, will again be a rider worth watching closely.
• Marsh Cooper
  Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth
  Like Hamilton, Cooper was a graduate of Trek Red Truck, moving on to the powerhouse but now-defunct Langley-based Symmetrics Pro Cycling squad for three years before taking a long break from competitive racing. He returned last summer with Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth, and will bring three other riders from the highly regarded North American pro quad with him – Julian Kyer, Daniel Halloway and Reid Mumford – to ensure a strong team performance.

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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.

~ Whistler native returns this weekend with impressive Team Exergy 

Ben Chaddock doesn’t hesitate when asked what last year’s win at the 2010 Tour de Delta Prologue meant to his career as a professional cyclist. 

“That was definitely the race that put me on the map,” Chaddock said. 

No wonder. Chaddock knocked off Canadian Olympian and seven-time National Time Trial champion Svein Tuft, who was riding on a European-based Pro Tour squad at the time, by blazing around the 3.2-kilometer course in three minutes and 46.52 seconds. His surprising win caught the eye of Team Exergy director Tad Hamilton, who signed Chaddock up in October for his first NRC season. 

Now, after surviving broken ribs in January and some early season struggles in his first full pro season, Chaddock returns to BC Superweek full of confidence after winning the final sprint and finishing third overall at the recent Canadian Criterium Championships. And he’s bringing an impressive team with him. 

Among eight Exergy riders expected to join Chaddock when BC Superweek kicks off with the Tour de Delta Friday are Columbia’s Carlos Alzate, a former Pan-American champion and 2008 Olympian, and “Fast” Freddy Rodriguez, a three-time US Road Champion who also won a stage at the Giro d’Italia in 2004.  

“We’re going to crush it,” said Chaddock, who is back in Whistler, where he was an FIS Alpine Skier for six years growing up before going to Whitman College in Washington State, switching to cycling and winning two Collegiate team titles. 

“Team Exergy really wanted to support me in my home race. One of the goals is to get a win for every single rider on the team and maybe this is mine; a reward for some of the sacrifices I made for other guys earlier in the season.” 

Chaddock made it clear he’s not counting on being the focal point for Exergy, and will be just as happy to keep providing support for his teammates. 

Either way, they will all have plenty of support at BC Superweek.  

In addition to friends and family, he has a sponsorship deal with Muscle Memory Personal and Group Training in TSawwassen, and they have set up three tents at Saturday’s Criterium in Ladner to cheer on Chaddock and Team Exergy, and raffle off one of his jerseys to raise money for youth at the Delta Rotary Club. 

“My family will be there, and a lot of people who followed me when I was ski racing,” said Chaddock. “All the physiotherapists and chiropractors that have seen me since I was 15, my old math teacher, all those types of people. I’ll be ready to go, that’s for sure.” 

Chaddock also put himself on the radar of the Canadian track team with a strong performance at nationals last August, finishing top-5 in every event he entered on his first time racing track, and may train with them in Los Angeles this fall. For now, though, he’s focused on a strong finish to the road-racing season. 

It certainly didn’t start the way Chaddock had hoped. 

After breaking ribs go-carting in January (“stupid of me”), he hit a rough patch at an Exergy training camp mid-February that continued through March, and didn’t feel like he was really contributing to his new team. Then, on his 26^th birthday, they gave him a Volvo, and told him to get it to Greenville, SC in six weeks, with scheduled stops for altitude training camos and smaller races along the way. By the time he rejoined the main squad for Speedweek, he felt a lot better.  

“It really helped me get into form and at Speedweek we raced six criteriums in eight days and my form continued to get better every day from the altitude training and I was able to learn something every night and apply it immediately the next night, which is huge,” he said. “I’m brand new, trying to figure out how to help my team leader, Carlos Alzate, and by the end I was able to contribute.  

“It wasn’t until those last couple of days I finally felt like a professional cyclist.” 

Stuck on the east coast during a team break shortly after, Chaddock managed to finish third at the two-day Wilmington Grand Prix in Delaware a short while later. 

“It was my first NRC podium and I was essentially riding with no support against teams from Jelly Belly, United Healthcare and Kelly Benefits with like three to five guys,” he said. “It showed my team that I can do it and I’ve learned to position myself and it was a huge confidence booster for me, my first pro podium.” 

Rodriguez joined team for the Philadelphia International Championship in June, and Chaddock was tasked with delivering him to the stretch run, helping a strong Exergy showing in the televised race and finishing the 250-km race himself.  

From there it was off to the Canadian National Championships, where he passed David Veilleux on the final sprint but finished two points behind the European based pro rider in the overall standings, and third overall in Canada. 

Now it’s back to BC Superweek, For Chaddock, it’s where it all started.

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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.

~ Eric Wohlberg back racing at age 46 and ready to take on next generation of Canadian cycling stars 

Last year, Eric Wohlberg returned to the BC Superweek races he used to dominate as a Team Director with the BISSELL Pro Cycling squad. 

He’s back this year to race at age 46, but don’t let the birth certificate fool you.

The three-time Canadian Olympian always has to be taken seriously. 

“I’ll definitely be the old fart out there, but they know I’m not done yet,” Wohlberg, an Ontario native originally, said over the phone from his new home base in Palo Alto, California. “I’ve still got a fair bit of fight in me and they know that.” 

Most Canadian cyclists know all about Wohlberg. In addition to his three straight Olympic experiences, he won gold medals in the Time Trial at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 Pan Am Games, a bronze in the Road Race at the at the Commonwealth Games, and was on seven Canadian entries at the World Championships. He has posted 76 stage and overall victories at major US races, and eight straight Canadian Time Trial Championships, a streak Svein Tuft, a former teammate on the now defunct Symmetrics Pro Cycling team that used to be based in Langley, is closing in on with a seventh win last week. 

Wohlberg also played a big role at BC Superweek, in large part by dominating the Tour de Delta as a member of the prestigious American based Saturn Cycling Team back in 2003, when he also earned his second Canadian Male Cylist of the Year award. His supremacy inspired the creation of Symmetrics to help local riders get organized to compete with the big American teams coming north to BC Sueprweek, and before long the locals were on the podium. 

Riders like Tuft, Ryan Anderson and Will Routley (all SpiderTech), Christian Meier and Andrew Pinfold (United Health Care) all converted success at BC Superweek into jobs racing professionally – first in North America, and now in Europe. Others like Marsh Cooper (Kelly Benefits), Nic Spaling (Jelly Belly) and Rob Britton (BISSELL) all followed in their path to top American based teams. 

Wohlberg continued to support the race as a director at BISSELL, sending riders north every year and using BC Superweek to identify emerging talent. 

“I remember one year Zach Bell smoked everyone in the Delta Hillclimb, and I was like `who the hell is this guy?’ We all know him now,” Wohlberg said of the Canadian Olympian, who also won the Tour de Delta Road Race just last year.  “Any rider who does well in a BC Superweek field warrants a serious look.”

 Wohlberg, who never really stopped riding or racing even while still doing some consulting work with Kelly Benefits, will get an up-close and personal look when he comes back with another young rider from Form Fitness, a small Northern California-based team made up mostly of Masters riders like himself, but with some younger Cat 1, 2, and 3 riders as well.

 “I’m not 100 per cent racing. I haven’t trained quite as hard as I’d like to, but I’m still going to give it a go and try to be factor in some of the races up there,” Wohlberg said. “I’m looking forward to Tour de Delta and the UBC and Burnaby Crits. I’m not 100 per cent confident about that Road Race in White Rock – that thing is so, so hard – but I’ve got good hopes coming up to BC Superweek so you never know.”

With Wohlberg, the rest of the cyclists will know to watch out, even at age 46.

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BC Superweek starts with three races at the Tour de Delta from July 8 to 10. Racing continues with the inaugural UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, July 12, and the return of the Giro di Burnaby on Thursday, July 14, before wrapping up with three more races at the historic Tour de White Rock from July 15 through 17.

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.

~ UBC Grand Prix makes its debut and Giro di Burnaby returns for 2011

Western Canada’s biggest bike race is back and bigger and better than ever. 

BC Superweek kicks off on July 8, with the addition the inaugural UBC Grand Prix and the return of the Giro di Burnaby pushing the total to eight races and more than $65,000 in prize money over 10 action-packed days.

The additions have already attracted entries from some of the top teams in North America and most of Canada’s best riders. Names like Whistler native Will Routley, the 2010 Canadian Road Race Champion and 2011 runner up, and Christian Meier, currently riding professionally in Europe, already confirmed, and more rider and team announcements will follow over the next two weeks.

Having the first UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, July 12, and the return of the Giro di Burnaby on Thursday, July 14, is a perfect way to bridge the gap between the two anchor races at BC Superweek: The three-race Tour de Delta from July 8 to 10, and the Tour de White Rock, with another three races July 15 to 17.

“BC Superweek is already the premier cycling event for best riders from Western Canada, and the addition of two more top quality races mid week will encourage more their teammates from the top North American pro squads to come with them and stay,” said Mark Ernsting, the Race Director for BC Superweek.

“It’s going to be one of the best fields we’ve ever had at BC Superweek.”

This year’s riders will join an impressive list of BC Superweek alumni that already includes top international names like the legendary Lance Armstrong, American veteran Chris Horner and Tyler Farrar, who will again be front and center again in this year’s Tour de France. The Canadian cycling contingent is just as strong, with Olympians like Svein Tuft, who rode BC Superweek last summer, and Brian Walton, who will be back this summer as an announcer at the Tour de Delta he helped to start, as well as Alison Sydor, Gina Grain and Erin Willock.

It has been provided a starting point for countless local riders now competing on the world stage. Riders like Tuft, who first tested himself against Walton at the Tour de White Rock, and is now considered a contender for the road race at the 2012 Olympics. Other local riders have used strong performances at BC Superweek to get invites from, and eventually jobs with professional teams.

“It’s such an important event for the growth of the sport in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest,” said Ernsting. “It would be like an NHL player showing up at the local skate – his presence shows everyone else what they need to do to take their game to the next level, and drives them to get better long after he’s left.”

For more information on BC Superweek, 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. 

Kevin Woodley
– 
Managing Partner, InGoal Magazine
& Hockey writer for AP, USA Today, The Hockey News, Sports Illustrated

Phone: 604-828-5842; Fax: 604-538-1826; email: woodyz@telus.net; twitter: @KevinisInGoal

~ One of Canada’s top cyclists coming back to race BC Superweek

 Christian Meier has a day job – and a uniform – most cyclists would envy.

Meier races professionally all over the world, but is based in Girona, Spain, and now spends most of his year in Europe, riding his bike against the best in his sport. Last season, Meier competed on a Garmin Pro Tour team that also featured fellow Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, who finished seventh at last year’s Tour de France, and Washington State’s Tyler Farrar, who won this year’s July 4 Tour de France stage and raced at BC Superweek in 2004.

Meier is now part of United Health Care Pro Cycling’s expansion into the European peleton as a Pro Continental squad, but when he returns to BC Superweek at the Tour de Delta from Friday, July 8 through Sunday, July 10, he will be wearing a different kit, one that means more personally than any team colors.

Instead of the blue-and-white colors of his United Health Care squad, Meier will kick off BC Superweek on Friday, July 8, in a simple black and white jersey with the words “F— Cancer” blaring boldly across his chest. 

Like the “last chance” tattoo inside his left forearm, the jersey is a tribute to the brother he lost to brain cancer in 2009. It’s also a commitment to raise awareness about prevention, particularly among young people. 

“There just doesn’t seem to be a huge push to cancer awareness and prevention, especially with the younger demographic, which is what F Cancer is trying to do,” Meier said of his attempts to raise funds and attention. “Even just the name grabs the attention of younger people – and everyone else for that matter.” 

Meier started the initiative last year at BC Superweek, and returns this year with another new plan to raise awareness. It’s called “I am riding for _______” and involves a sticker on his bike with the name of someone affected by cancer.  

In addition to a spot on his bike, Meier shares their story on his personal blog (http://bikingbros.com/), using them for inspiration when he races. 

“We need to get the word out that over 90 per cent of cancers are curable if caught in stage one,” Meier writes on the blog. “I will be keep you updated as things progress and stay tuned to the “I AM RIDING FOR” section to read the story of person who is inspiring me to pedal that much faster.” 

Meier said so far it has been mostly people he knows personally, but he is looking to open it up as he comes “home” for BC Superweek. 

“It is usually people I know who have been affected but if people have a story they want to tell or experience they want to share, I’d ride for anyone whose had to deal with cancer,” he said. “It’s a huge battle for all of us and I know there a lot of great people out there I could ride for, and get inspiration from.”

 Meier rode with his brother Michael’s name plastered on his bike at last week’s Canadian National Championships, and his older sibling is never far from his thoughts. Michael woke up one day with a horrible headache and had surgery two days later to remove a brain tumor, but the cancer returned suddenly that summer, and he passed away while Christian was riding the Vuelta a Espana, forcing him to abandon his first Grand Tour with four stages left to go. 

Meier is working to get back there with United Health Care, whose expansion plans into Europe include one day riding at the Tour de France, which along with the Vuelta and Giro d’Italy make up the three Grand Tours. But he’s not about to abandon his efforts to raise cancer awareness in the meantime, even if early detection might not have been enough to help his older brother. 

Michael Meier was a week shy of his 26th birthday, married with two young children, when he died. Christian is 26 now, and got married last fall. 

“What could have helped him a lot is knowledge in general,” Christian said. “How the disease affects you, what you can expect and also what you should look for in treatment. My brother and family were not well enough educated on the cancer and therefore maybe were to quick to accept what they were being told by doctors, and looking back they maybe should have gone elsewhere. We should have sought out more specialized services and it frustrates me that it was maybe just a lack of knowledge may have cost him more. There is a lot of money being raised for cancer research, which is super, but a lot of cancers can be cured with early detection so this is also something we should put resources into.”

 You won’t catch Meier complaining about his life on the bike these days. Born in New Brunswick, he moved to Langley to race and won the Canadian National Road Race Championship in 2008, then moved across the Atlantic to race with Garmin last season, before moving over to United Health Care.  

No matter how far he travels, Meier always looks forward to coming “home” to Langley, and racing at BC Superweek, giving other local riders the chance to test themselves against the best, something he looked forward coming up the ranks. 

“It’s been great and I’m glad to still be racing in Europe and always glad that when I’m home I get to do these local races like BC Superweek,” he said.