July 21, 2005 - HealthNet's Gord Fraser and Victory Brewing's Gina Grain won the 2005 edition of the Tour de Gastown in front of 30,000 fans.
On a perfect summer evening in downtown Vancouver, both riders won close sprint finishes after catching dangerous breakaway moves that characterized the men's and women's races. Gina Grain duelled with Quark's Sarah Uhl in a two-woman sprint, while Gord Fraser came from the pack on the last lap to take his second Gastown victory.
"No other race compares," said an emotional and out of breath Fraser holding his son Angus in his arms. "It's such a special event with so much history and it inspires all the riders who come here."
The men's race was dominated by breakaways with HealthNet, Navigators, and Symmetrics active in all moves. An early group of Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), Hilton Clarke (Navigators), Gord Fraser (HealthNet), and Derek McMaster (Team Coastal) looked dangerous and put 10 seconds on the pack by the 7th of 50 laps of the 1.2km cobbled circuit. The group dangled out front, working together taking primes in front of a strung-out pack of over 120 riders.
McMaster and Fraser would drift back to the pack, leaving Clarke and Tuft who were then joined by the HealthNet pair of Doug Ollerenshaw and Tyler Farrar, Navigator Siro Camponogara and Symmetrics Jake Erker. The six rider break had plenty of horsepower and opened up a gap of 16 seconds by the mid way point of the race. Back in the peloton, Subway and Jittery Joes chased, having been left out of the major move of the evening.
With 16 laps to go, North Vancouver resident Kirk O'Bee (Navigators) launched a massive attack at the start/finish, taking advantage of the slight incline up to the hairpin turn at Water and Cordova in an attempt to bridge up to the lead group. Ryan Mackenzie (Subway) tried to go with O'Bee, but would not be able to hold his wheel. In a space of three laps O'Bee bridged up, stacking the odds in favour of the Navigators now with three riders in the lead group of seven.
Subway riders Cameron Hughes and Todd Cornelius took over the chase and worked hard to lessen the gap to the lead seven. With 10 laps to go, the lead had shrunk to 10 seconds. A big prime with 9 laps to go taken by Tim Johnson (Jittery Joes) brought the gap down another 5 seconds and over the next lap, the breakaway looked like it had all but given up.
In a never-say-die gesture Clarke, Tuft, and Ollerenshaw countered as their group was being absorbed and proceeded to put 12 seconds on the pack in the next two laps, as Jittery Joes Even Elken, Ital Pasta's Nat Faulkner and Brandon Crichton worked hard to shut it down. Then with 3 laps to go, Seattle resident Kenny Williams (FirstRate Mortgage) emerged from the pack at the start/finish, in a last minute attempt to steal the pro's glory. With two laps to go, Williams had bridged to the lead group to make it a four-man sprint. A $2000 crowd prime with two laps to go was won by Ollerenshaw, leaving Clarke, Williams, and Tuft to jockey for position on the last lap with the pack bearing down only 4 seconds behind.
It was at that point, just after the hairpin turn on Cordova that Tyler Farrar started his one-lap lead out for Gord Fraser, ramping up the pace to 60kmh, stringing out the pack and blowing by the lead group as they came onto the final straightaway down Water St.
From there, Fraser took over, unleashing a trademark sprint that has won him more bike races than any other Canadian cyclist, beating the hard-charging Australian Jeff Hopkins (Jittery Joes) and Navigator Vasili Davidenko
Describing the last two laps, Fraser said "We had Doug up the road and he's really not a sprinter. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to catch the group, but Tyler and I found each other at the right moment. It's so loud here, I was screaming at Tyler at the top of my lungs to start it up a little earlier so we could catch the break on the back stretch. Somehow he heard me and just did an incredible lead-out. He hit
it so fast, I could barely hold his wheel."
Fraser, who won the race in 2003, said about his future plans "As long
as there's a Gastown and as long as I'm still racing, I'll be here."
The women’s race started with an emotional tribute to the fallen
Australian rider Amy Gillett who was killed in Germany during a training
ride accident. Australian Helen Kelly and the rest of the women’s riders
sported black armbands in honour of the rider and her teammates.
The women's race saw the largest turnout of riders since the race
returned to Gastown in 2001, with over 50 competitors. The 30 lap race
started fast with Lyne Bessette (Sports Experts - Louis Garneau), Erinne
Willock (Webcor), and Helen Kelly (Quark) all setting the pace early.
Gina Grain (Victory Brewing) took a prime at the 12 lap mark of the race
and continued her acceleration up Water St, causing a chase from Helen
Kelly and Alison Testerote (Team Alberta). The two riders caught Grain
and the three worked together over the next 5 laps to put a lead onto
the group of 10 seconds. Marni Hambleton and Mandy Poitras (Symmetrics)
lead the chase until Sarah Uhl (Quark) attacked from the peloton in an
attempt to bridge to her teammate Kelly in the lead group. Uhl closed
the gap, making a lead group of four riders.
"If they stayed away I didn't know how it would go down with Helen and
Gina, so I decided I'd try to get across," said Uhl. "I got across and
was pretty excited as I haven't had too much of a history of bridging to
breaks!"
With Uhl, winner of the Tour de Delta the weekend previous, up the road
and her teammate Kelly working for her, Grain attacked the break to
force a split. At the same time, Bessette and Testroete worked the front
of the main field. The break was caught on the next lap and it was all
together with 10 laps to go. Prime sprints taken by Grain and Poitras
punctuated a few tentative laps with the pack all together until the
crowd prime at 2 laps to go was announced. With $1000 on the line, Lyne
Bessette tried her luck and attacked to take the cash and put a few
seconds on the pack. "I thought I might be able to stay away," said
Bessette. "When I was on the other side [Cordova] I had a good little
gap, but Quark really wanted it and chased me down."
"Lyne had a really good gap on us when she went for that prime and it's
actually the best thing that could have happened for us as it kept the
pace high on the last lap," said Grain. "I like it fast, so the faster
the better."
Kelly chased hard down the back straight on Cordova catching Bessette
and setting up the sprint for teammate Uhl. Onto the final straightaway,
Uhl lead out the sprint with Grain on her wheel. Grain came around with
50 meters to go, taking a close sprint from Uhl. "On the last corner, I
was in third position, wound it up and pounded it into the finish," said
Grain, the 31 year old from Victoria.
Two bike lengths behind, Canadian Junior National Team member Joelle
Numainville took third place. Fresh off her wins as the Junior Road and
Time Trial Champion at the National Cycling Championships in Kamloops,
the 17 year old Numainville considered her third place to be a
significant accomplishment.
"The manager of the team said he wanted one girl on the team on the
podium and I was like... ha, you are crazy!" said an excited Numainville
at the end of the race. "But I felt good all race and jumped onto Gina's
wheel on the last lap, but they [Uhl & Grain] are so fast! I finished
great and I'm very happy."
Bessette was equally complementary of the upstart from Quebec. "Joelle
had a really great race! She was in a perfect spot when she had to be on
that last lap and I'm really happy for her."
Quark's Kelly, an Australian, dedicated her race to her friend Amy
Gillett who was tragically killed in an accident when a car went out of
control hitting her and her teammates during a training ride in Germany
on Tuesday. "Today's a tribute for Amy," said Kelly. "We tried to do a
good race for her."
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