Team H&R Block recently returned from BC's lower mainland, where the team competed in the four events comprising B.C. SuperWeek. The races included the Tour de Delta Stage Race, Tour de Gastown Criterium (part of the USA Crits Series), Giro di Burnaby Criterium, and finally the Tour de White Rock. The races featured the toughest competition the team has seen this year, with a large number of professional riders representing teams such as Bissell Professional Cycling, Jittery Joe's, BMC Cycling, Canadian stand-outs Symmetrics, and to top it all off, Astana professional Chris Horner, the 15th-placed finisher at the 2007 Tour de France.
The first event of the week was the Tour de Delta, which included a short 3 km prologue Time Trial, a Criterium in the town of Ladner and finally a point-to-point road race from North Delta to Tswassen. The event was remarkable in that the major time gaps occurred in the Criterium, while the Road Race finished with a bunch sprint. The Criterium was crash-filled, with H&R riders Aaron Schooler and Chris DeVries hitting the deck, but coming out unscathed. Top H&R rider at Delta was Mark MacDonald, our young track-endurance specialist, who finished in 27th position, while Symmetrics dominated the weekend.
After two days of recovery, the next race on the agenda was one of the top criteriums in North America, the Tour de Gastown. H&R was represented in this race by Mark MacDonald and the newly-married Cyrus Kangarloo, while other team members saved their energy for subsequent SuperWeek events. The 60 km race, contested on a circuit in downtown Vancouver, was dominated by the professional teams and was raced at a blistering speed of over 46 kmph. Mark MacDonald suffered from the intensity, and was unable to finish, while Kangarloo had a tremendous ride to finish near the lead group in 31st place. Kangarloo was the sole Albertan to finish the race, and one of the few non-professional riders.
Next up was the Giro di Burnaby. The H&R team included MacDonald and Kangarloo, in addition to Aaron Schooler, Anthony Steenbergen, and Jeff Bolstad. The race was similar in nature to the other criteriums, with the professional teams dominating the front end of the race. In this instance, however, Mark MacDonald was able to make a few forays to the front of the race. All H&R riders finished in the pack.
The final event of SuperWeek was the Tour de White Rock, one of Canada's oldest road events. The tour consisted of three races – a Friday evening Time Trial Hill Climb in which those riders with the top-five times raced a mass-start final. H&R's Chris DeVries qualified (ahead of Astana' Chris Horner!) and raced to fourth place in the final, with Kangarloo had the 8th best time of the night. The Criterium saw H&R riders become increasingly confident and accustomed to the high-speeds. Both Mark MacDonald and Aaron Schooler spent time at the front of the race, with MacDonald snagging a top-ten in the final sprint. The marquis event of the weekend, the road race, saw a peloton watching every move of Chris Horner. Three H&R riders stayed with the ever-shrinking peloton until the final circuits and were able to finish the race – DeVries, Kangarloo, and Chris McNeil finished 17th, 19th, and 22nd positions respectively.
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