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Routley 10th in Tour of Turkey

Road racer coming home to rest before busy start to summer
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Over the bars Will Routley plots another escape at the Tour of Turkey last week. Photo BY spidertech presented by c10

Whistler's Will Routley has had his fair share of success in one-day cycling events as well as individual stages of multi-day events, but putting together a full eight-stage race is not always part of the plan. In some races Routley has been a role player, carrying water, breaking the wind, chasing breaks and supporting his teammates. In others, he's been sick, flatted or crashed, putting overall results out of reach.

But most of the time Routley's priority from the start is to win a stage, a sprint or a climb, which takes a different kind of effort than doing well in the overall general classification.

But at the recent eight-stage Tour of Turkey, suddenly it became all about the General Classification after Routley managed to stick with the early breaks and put himself in a position to place in the top 10 overall in the pro circuit event. After that it was a priority to do well in the standings.

"The results don't tell the whole story," he said of his 10th place finish. "People often look at a stage and say, 'oh a sprint finish,' but many of the days the front group was 50 guys — which seems like a bunch sprint, but the field was 200, so that means 150 guys were dropped. So it's not an easy day.

"Also, the racing was very aggressive, there were so many attempts and breakaways, but there is also a lot of motivation for all those in the top 10 in the overall to stay there, so there is a lot of energy (spent) to thwart those breakaways."

The field was also extremely competitive with top pro riders using the event as a tune-up for the Giro d'Italia. Nobody was letting any breaks get away without a challenge.

"Many teams were working for their sprinters, again giving a lot of horsepower to bring things back together," said Routley.

Routley, who rides for Team SpiderTech powered by C10, Canada's elite Pro Continental team, said they went into each day with a strategy. By the end the strategy was to preserve his top 10 ranking, which was not easy.

"As for the sprint to the finish, that is only the last few kilometres of a long day racing," he said. "The main strategy there while riding to conserve a top 10 GC position is not to lose time. Crashes and tired legs mean gaps can easily open in the final sprint and losing five or 10 seconds could cost us everything, so the guys (his teammates) would help me stay safe and well-positioned. Staying safe is a big part of it."

With 50 riders in the sprint to the finish there were large crashes every day. Avoiding those crashes and finishing close to the leader every day made all the difference.

Routley is racing the Tour of Luxembourg next, then coming home to race in the road nationals where he was the Canadian champion in 2010 and placed second last year while helping teammate Svein Tuft to the title. After that the team heads back to Europe and the Tour de Suisse, the highest-profile race that Team SpiderTech has been invited to since the team earned Pro Continental status at the end of the 2010 season.

"In Suisse, it's going to be a big step," he said. "I think we'll have goals to work for the sprinters on a couple of stages, and go for big breakaways on others. That is where I should come in. Personally, I am aiming to do one or two big days in the break, and, if I play my cards right, win a stage. It would be huge for me to pull it off, but I think I'm moving in that direction and it's what I'll aim to do."

Routley has already earned a nickname for himself on the pro cycling tour, after placing fifth in the opening stage of the Coppi e Bartali in March — Artista della Fuga, which is Italian for "The Escape Artist."

"I have to laugh," said Routley of the name. "It's easier to think of someone as a sprinter or climber, and I do love the breakaway. So with the number of breaks I've been in lately, I've earned a name. I'll take it, it's no secret I like to race aggressively, so I won't stop attacking any time soon."

Routley is taking a much-needed rest before heading back to Europe, and will be in Whistler for a week. He's hoping to get in some good training while he's here, as well as some badly needed sleep.

The former junior national mountain bike champion might even grab his mountain bike for a bit of a change.

But while he's exhausted he's enjoyed the travelling and his time in Turkey. "Turkey is great," he said. "The food is unreal, the countryside is gorgeous, really nice people — I'd really like to go back and spend some time there."

Overall, Team SpiderTech is on a bit of a roll. Before Turkey, they placed two athletes on the podium at the Tro Bro Leon in France, with Ryan Roth taking the win and Guillaume Boivin third. Routley, who was second in the event last year, was part of the team effort to put the two SpiderTech racers onto the podium.

Boivin is also ranked fourth in the Europe Tour standings with three podiums and eight top 10 finishes this season.