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Chaddock meets Routley in Delta tour

Whistler cyclists enjoying break-through seasons

While Whistler has grown accustomed to seeing the name Will Routley on various leaderboards, it was another Whistler rider who took the Tour de Delta by storm last weekend.

Ben Chaddock, riding for Team Rubicon-Orbea, placed first in the men's prologue. He edged out national time trial champion Svein Tuft. Routley placed fourth while riding for Team Jelly Belly, presented by Kenda.

Chaddock followed that result with a tie for fourth place in the criterium while keeping pace with the chase group. Routley's group dropped behind and was two seconds back at the finish.

The road race was up next. Chaddock placed ninth in that event in 3 hours,18 minutes, 53 seconds, 10 seconds off the lead pace. Routley was 11 th , just 0.3 seconds back of Chaddock.

Chaddock finished his weekend ranked fifth in the general classification with a combined time of 4:36:57. Routley was one spot back in sixth in 4:37:02.

Chaddock, better known for his career as a ski racer, started to get into cycling while in college and spent the last two seasons racing with the Whitman College team in Washington, one of the top NCAA teams in the U.S.

He's had some good results in the last few years, and started to attract the attention of pro cycling teams. In 2009 he rode for Team Cannondale-Westwood. This year he was recruited by Team Rubicon-Orbea. It's been a different experience racing with the team, said Chaddock, who was keen to play any role he could. He now cycles full time, while holding down a part-time job based on his environmental economics degree from Whitman.

"I had pretty poor form at the start of the season while coming out of school, so I played a supporting role for the first couple of weeks," he said. "At the (Tour of America's) Dairyland (in late June) I was able to contribute my sprint. Then we went to St. Louis for two criteriums (at the Tour de Grove) and I was able to place second in the first one, which blew my mind because I was up against Brad Huff (Team Jelly Belly) who is one of the top sprinters in North America right now."

Chaddock also won the first stage of the 2010 Tour of Wall Walla in Washington this season and was solid through the next few stages before a mechanical problem cost him a shot at an overall result.

While he's working on improving his performance over longer distances he says his sports background is better suited for prologues, sprints and criteriums.

"My skiing physiology is for intense three or four minute efforts which is why in the last few years I've aimed to do well in the prologues," he said.

Chaddock said he went into Delta with a definite goal in mind for the prologue.

"I had a time in my head that would make me feel good about myself, and I was happy because one of my teammates crossed the line in that time, it was the provisional best time, and I knew I could do it just as fast as him. There wasn't a lot of anxiety in that race," he said.

Chaddock says the result, though not entirely unexpected, "was something I always hoped would happen."

He is also proud to have a result to show former skiing teammates Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon, who are with the national alpine team and having solid results on the World Cup.

"They've been giving me a hard time over the whole biking thing and all the spandex, but now I can show them this," laughed Chaddock.

Following the prologue at the Tour de Delta Chaddock focused on staying in the game. He knew the road stage would be tough, but he managed to stay with the lead pack in the criterium and was excited to find himself racing alongside some of the top Canadian riders - including Routley, who introduced himself during the event. While they are both from Whistler, Routley is two years older and they only knew each other slightly.

"I got in the major break of the day," Chaddock said of the Criterium. "I was a little too far back and as I pushed my way up to the front all of the major players attacked, so I went with them and we managed to get out with an advantage of 25 seconds. It was Svein Tuft, Zach Bell, Justin Kerr, Will Routley, Andrew Pinfold - it was ridiculous. But I believed I could do it, and if you can do it then you can suck it up and start racing."

Next up for Chaddock is the Boise Twilight race in Idaho on July 17, followed by the Cascade Classic in Washington from July 20 to 25. He also has the Portland Twilight race on Aug. 13 on his calendar.

Closer to home, Superweek is still underway. Next up is the Tour de White Rock this weekend.

Routley - who won the national championship road race two weeks before while on a break with Jelly Belly - will likely rejoin his pro team for another event and miss the Tour de White Rock.

You can follow Ben Chaddock on his blog, cyclinginatoque.blogspot.com or his Twitter feed. Will Routley's race reports are at www.jellybellycycling.com