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Routley takes GranFondo

Leah Guloien takes third title in four years of Vancouver-to-Whistler road ride
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Will POWER

After a season of racing 200km-plus events in Europe for a pro continental team, Whistler's Will Routley had other riders shaking their heads in the fourth annual RBC GranFondo Whistler on Saturday, Sept. 7.

Routley spent some of the 122km ride pedalling alongside his father Tony, exploded out of the pack for the Squamish Sprint and King/Queen of the Mountain sections, connected with some former pro teammates along the way, dropped back a few times to take in the sheer size of the event, led the chase pack when things got a little more serious and then controlled the challenging second half of the ride from Squamish to Whistler.

While Routley said the emphasis was fun and participation, any event with a timer and some prizes on the line becomes a race. And this is one event the former national road champion simply had to win.

"I am kind of sand-bagging, but it's a home event and I'd never done it before, and I wanted to come across the finish line first in Whistler," he said.

As predicted, Routley said the event was more of a ride than a race until Squamish.

"We started in the rain and it was virtually still dark because it was so early in the morning, and so we just sort of cruised out at the beginning for a while — just a few guys rode away," he said. "Actually, Richard Wooles, the head coach who runs Cycling BC, was one of them, and he led for the first half of the race which was pretty cool.

"But nobody was riding super hard and nobody really raced until they were racing each other for the King of the Mountain and Squamish Sprint and those prizes about halfway through. Coming out of Squamish we picked up the pace a little bit but we still weren't going that fast. And I was like, man, I'm going to have to push the pace a little bit more or those three up front are going to win.

"So I started to ride a little harder and before I knew it, it was just Cam (Evans) and another guy. Just the three of us rode away and we caught the other guys up front. I was expecting the group to stay together for a little while longer, but then I pushed a little more coming into the Cheakamus Canyon, and Cam stayed with me and we just stayed together from there."

Routley's chip time was three hours, 21 minutes and 11 seconds, with an exhausted Evans crossing the line 11 seconds later. The next chase group of four riders came in 3:23:32, led by Nigel Kinney. Geoff Kabush, one of Canada's top mountain bike racers was fourth to Kinney by eight seconds.

For Evans, who used to race with Routley for Team Symmetrics, it was a tough finish.

"I was just hoping to hang onto Will's wheel from Squamish onwards," he said. "He was nice enough to wait for me, otherwise he probably would have finished well ahead and dropped me way before that. Everyone knows Squamish onwards is the tough part, which it was, and I was lucky enough to tag the right wheel. Routley lost me on those rollers at the end there, and I was just happy to make it to the finish line at that point. He could have dropped me whenever he wanted to, he's a nice guy."

For Geoff Kabush, a member of the national cross-country team, the ride filled a gap in his always-busy schedule, and once he was in the event he knew he was going to try his best.

"The worlds in South Africa and World Cup season just wrapped up, and I was looking for some fun stuff to race in the fall," he said. "This was an easy way to get a good workout and transition into cyclocross. I've also relocated back to North Vancouver recently, and it was nice to see some friends riding in the GranFondo."

Kabush said he actually spends a lot of time on his road bike training for cross-country events, as well as on his cyclocross bike. "I ride all kinds of bikes, they're all fun, and I enjoy all the sports and different disciplines," he said.

Leah Guloien

The top female racer was Leah Guloien, who won the GranFondo Whistler title the first and second years, placed second last year, and then won again this year with a time of 3:23:48. She crossed the line with the peleton, setting a fast pace in some difficult racing conditions.

"It got kind of sketchy in the beginning, there was a lot of rain and a few crashes," she said. "I tried to stay up near the front for when the climbs came, but I just didn't have very good legs today. My time was faster, but that's just because there were some stronger guys in the field and they had a higher pace going. I'd say that the rain really changed things up for me, it's hard to push it with the wet painted lines on the road and slippery conditions, which is why I think the pack stayed together for so long out there."

Guloinen hasn't decided what she's going to do next year, race with a team or dial things back a notch. She said she'll focus on training other riders at Catalyst Kinetics and make a decision over the winter adding that riding the GranFondo this year gave her a lot of confidence. "I am riding with the guys, which is great, though it's hard to say (if I'm fast) because some of the guys are just out for a ride, and for a lot of guys it's more of an end-of-season ride. But it does give me some confidence."

The next Whistler rider behind Will Routley was Trevor Hopkins, who finished the race at 3:24:17, posting his best time on the course by over three minutes. He placed 14th overall and third in the Male 40 to 49 category.

Mike Boehm finished one second back of Hopkins and was eighth in Male 30 to 39. He also beat his previous best time by over nine minutes.

Justin Homewood finished one second back of Boehm and was sixth in Male 19 to 29. It was his first GranFondo appearance.

Luke Dolan finished in 3:39:36 and was 13th in Male 40 to 49, beating his previous best time by almost 14 minutes.

Greg McDonnell

Greg McDonnell was 18th in the same category in 3:35:33, also beating his previous personal best by over four minutes.

"One of the most enjoyable parts of the race was seeing Will and Tony Routley riding shoulder-to-shoulder and just chitchatting through Britannia, that was really cool," said McDonnell. He also enjoyed watching Routley peel off the main group at the first sprint stage.

McDonnell said he managed to stay with the main group until around Alice Lake, when he dropped off the pace. He managed to fall in with a strong team from Mountain Equipment Co-op through to Whistler, but then he lost his chain in Function Junction. He had to stop and get off his bike to fix the problem, then rode a lot faster than he intended to catch the group again by Bayshores. That cost him a little at the final sprint, but he couldn't catch the one rider he had his eye on. "I had a little left, but not enough to catch that one guy," he said.

The rain was also a bigger challenge.

"I had dark lenses on my glasses, and I needed the glasses to protect my eyeballs, but with the heavy cloud and the early morning I really couldn't see very well," said McDonnell. "It was a bit sketchy to Horseshoe Bay, but things got better after that with the sun coming up."

Also finishing under four hours this year were Josh Stott, Tony Routley, Dave Johnston, John Legg, Tom Laviolette, David Higgins, Jason Shorter, Bob Barnett, Mike Rogerson, Kelly Blunden and David McPeake.

Other Whistler mentions go to Paul O'Mara, who was fifth in the men's 60 to 69 category in 4:01:05, Ashley McMillan's 4:15:41 just two weeks after finishing his first Ironman, John Hetherington's first place finish in the men's 70-plus age group in 4:17:01 out of 27 riders and Tom Thomson's third place finish in that category in 4:56:49.

Phil Chew

Phil Chew, a past Paralympian and the head coach for the B.C. Para-Alpine Ski Team, also raced for the fourth time in as many years, posting an incredible time of 4:22:31 with just one leg. He crushed his previous best time by almost 13 whole minutes, and placed 18th out of 258 racers in the 60 to 69 age category — all of them able-bodied.

"I was staying at a friend's house in the west end the night before the race and we were talking, and I said if I can do a 4:25 I would be beside myself — and then I thought to myself, 'geez, I should probably just shut up about that because I'm jinxing myself,'" he said. "When I finally got my time, I was just ecstatic I was floating a metre off the floor."

Chew said he's been training hard this year and got a new bike, but the biggest difference was motivation. After crashing last year, he was determined to have a good ride, whatever the conditions.

"The weather just freaked everybody out, people were going down and when someone falls down up front everybody puts on the brakes and weird things start to happen to your bike," he said. "I was just trying to keep my wits about me. One time the group slowed down and almost stopped in front of me (because of a crash) and I put on the brakes, and ended up doing a sideways slide. And I think it was my mountain bike skills, because I just let the brake go, I snapped back straight and went through this little opening in the crowd. That was lucky."

For the most part, Chew stayed with strong groups and to his surprise he didn't fall off the pace like he usually does at the end of a long climb. "I did everything a gear higher than I would normally do it," he said. "I used a heart monitor (to train) this year and I was quite disciplined with my riding. Usually my personality is to just give'r full-on and pay the price, but I know myself better now and I felt I could almost take it the point where I would bonk and then pull in back a little bit and stay in that zone."

Brandi Heisterman

The second female racer was Morgan Cabon over 10 minutes later in 3:35:29, followed by Jenny Lehmann, last year's winner, in 3:37:15.

Brandi Heisterman has been a serious contender on the women's side in past GranFondo races, but came into this year's event after a busy week of training for the Xterra USA Championship on Sept. 21 in Utah. Heisterman has been having an exceptional season on the tour, taking advantage of wet conditions and her skills on a mountain bike to place third in Virginia and Alabama.

Heisterman said her GranFondo didn't start well. "I was dropped," she laughed. "I was dropping off all the lead groups. I felt good until Furry Creek actually, and everybody was riding all civilized until that point until I was like 'let's go' and I attacked. That wasn't the best move."

Her hopes for finishing among the top women this year were further dashed when a rider crashed in front of her. With nowhere to go, Heisterman crashed as well, but luckily landed on the rider in front of her rather than the pavement. She stayed with the injured rider for a few minutes until help arrived, and rode off again well off the winning pace.

"I had to train through this race this year, and was full bore coming into it," she said. "It was a big week for me, and I just wanted to get through the race, I didn't think I would have a stellar output this year."

Heisterman still managed to finish second in her age category and ninth among women in 3:45:46.

The top Whistler female rider this year was Amanda Mourant in 4:24:17. She was 47th out of 813 women in the race and 16th in her age category and beat her previous best by 24:35. Cindy Bonnell was 21st in her category in 4:30:31 and Ondrea Ross 37th in her category in 4:48:55, with both riders completing the 122km distance for the first time on Saturday.

As well as the awards for the top male and female, there was a Squamish Sprint competition through Squamish and a King/Queen of the Mountain on the 1.5km hill out of Furry Creek. Colin Rimes of Vancouver won the men's sprint, while Jenny Lehmann of Victoria took the women's event, with each winning a green jersey and a $500 coupon for Corsa Cycles. In the King/Queen of the Mountain, the fastest climbers were Vancouver's Corey Forrest and winner Leah Guloien, with each of them winning a MIO Alpha heart rate watch and a bottle of Bollinger Champagne, as well as a polka dot jersey.

There were 3,085 men on the start line, plus 813 women for the 2013 edition of the RBC GranFondo Whistler, with another 125 racers doing the shorter Medio Fondo distance from Squamish.

Results are available online at www.rbcgranfondowhistler.com.

GranFondo Whistler organizers committed to event

Organizers of the RBC GranFondo Whistler ride still believe that the event could be one of the premier events in North America, if not the world, despite the drop in registration over the past two years.

According to GranFondo Canada founder and president Kevin Thomson, the lower numbers are the result of competition rather than any issues with the event itself.

"The first couple of years we were the only game in town," he said. "At that time we were the only GranFondo in Canada, and in the first year we sold out and in the second year we came close with all the people that didn't get in the first year that wanted to do. By the third year there were over 100 GranFondos for people to choose from (in North America), so it wasn't the same atmosphere we had in the first couple of years. People were looking around and saying 'this is great, we want to try more.'"

Thomson doesn't expect all of these new events to continue in the long-term, bringing up the popularity of marathon running in the past. "The same things happened with marathons," he said. "All of a sudden there was a marathon every weekend in Vancouver, but eventually there was only one. This is a normal course of events, and we fully expect that the Vancouver to Whistler ride will be the one that outstays any of the events that pop up."

Thomson's group, GranFondo Canada, organizes just three events: Whistler, Banff, Alberta, and Niagara, Ontario. However, they don't own the rights to the name or the European concept of the "big ride," and he said there is some confusion amongst riders who believe the events may all be connected, or will be organized to the same standard. In that sense Thomson said they are very much rider-focused and are committed to organizing a handful of spectacular events that involve closing at least one lane of a scenic road to keep riders safe.

"Anybody can use 'granfondo,' there are no restrictions to it," explained Thomson. "When we started out we were the only ones using it and we thought it was a distinctive term, but it turns out that it's not and people are creating granfondos in different places with different ideas of what it should be, and that's confusing people. Our idea is to have a long ride with a closed-lane cycling opportunity. That's an expensive thing to produce, but it's the way we think cycling should be done."

The good news is that this year's total participation — roughly 4,000 riders including the Medio Fondo ride from Squamish — is still bigger than the first year's event, and registration is going strong already for the 2014 ride. As well, Thomson said out-of-province registration is continuing to grow. In 2011, some 16 per cent of riders were from outside of B.C., growing to 22 per cent in 2012 and close to 30 per cent for 2013.

Thomson said he's not worried that the race will lose access to the highway — which requires closures and delays along the busy route — because he doesn't expect that their numbers will drop any further.

GranFondo organizers are also committed to working on the existing event to make it better and increase interest in the future. For example, in 2014 they will be hosting a longer-distance category, some 152km versus the usual 122km, that will be limited to 500 riders. They're also doing more work at the grassroots with training groups for new road riders that will build up to the GranFondo ride next year, taking place on Sept. 6.

"We want to take on that challenge of reinventing the event and keeping it fresh," he said. "That's just part of the buzz, and it's also our responsibility to give people reasons to come back.

"We're going to continue to work with our partners to keep this going. There's no lack of excitement or enthusiasm for this, I think we just need to stay the course and we'll be here for the long haul."

There's no question that road cycling is actually building in popularity.

According to the U.S.-based National Bicycle Dealers Association, the percentage of road bike sales has been increasing from around 16 per cent of all bike purchases in 2005 to 20 per cent in 2012. At the same time the value of all bikes sold has increased from around $5.4 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2012: 20 per cent of that is over $1.2 billion. Used bike sales represent another billion dollars in annual sales.