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Routley leads Symmetrics in Superweek finale

Whistler rider named to national team for Road World Championships

Things turned around quickly for Whistler’s Will Routley last week.

After crashing and breaking his handlebars in the muddy and miserable national mountain bike championships, Routley was back on his road bike a few days later for the Tour de Gastown in Vancouver on Wednesday, July 21.

The Tour de Gastown is the second of three events that make up the Superweek Series in the Lower Mainland, one of the top road racing events on the entire west coast. Most of the top North American teams take part in Superweek, which includes the Tour de Delta – which Routley missed because he was mountain biking at the national championships – the Tour de Gastown and the Tour de White Rock.

Although he flatted out early in the Gastown race, which put the podium out of reach, a replacement wheel and 40,000 cheering spectators helped him move to the front of the chase pack.

"It actually went really well. I ended up in one of the early breaks with all the top guys and was feeling pretty strong out there before I flatted out," said Routley. "I didn’t get the tire replaced quickly enough so I wound up with the main group instead of the break, but I stayed in front of that group for the whole way."

At the end of the ride Routley was in 23 rd place out of 150 starters.

"It was a pretty exciting night for me. I was happy after so much travelling in the last month to be able to race that well, and see my teammates do so well.

"I was feeling so good that that night I actually made a prediction for (the Tour de) White Rock. I was going to go for the win, and the way I felt I thought I could do it."

The Tour de White Rock is a three-stage road race with a timed hill climb on Friday, a criterium around White Rock on Saturday and a 135 km road race on Sunday.

Routley finished fourth out of 180 riders in the hill climb. Cam Evans and Andrew Pinfold, Routley’s teammates, were first and third respectively in the climb, showing the other riders why they’ve emerged as one of the top teams in western North America in only two years.

In a brutal criterium on the following day, Routley finished sixth overall. Pinfold and Evans were second and third in that race.

"It was scorching hot," said Routley. "There wasn’t a patch of shade on the whole course, and the riders were going pretty much full out the entire time. It’s not my best event, but I was happy to put in another solid race.

"I was really looking for the road race, which I was dreaming about all week because it’s so difficult. It’s only 135 kilometres, but it feels like 180 because the roads are so steep, the climbs are difficult, and there are always headwinds blowing in from the coast," said Routley.

"It’s one of the toughest courses in North America. The hills there are steeper than in San Francisco."

The race is 11 laps of a long course followed by six laps of a 5 km course in the town centre, which brought out an estimated 15,000 spectators.

Routley made sure he was in the first break of the day, although it wasn’t long before the chase pack caught up.

"It was a really aggressive race from start to finish," said Routley.

Heading into the final six laps Routley broke away with five other riders. Unfortunately none of his teammates were in that group, so Routley was on his own for the rest of the race.

He attacked on the first climb, immediately dropping two of the racers. Routley was left with two opponents after that, both members of the Australian Jelly Belly team, which were the defending champions.

"They totally worked together, with one guy attacking while the other just sat behind drafting me, so I didn’t get a break the whole time. After a while I figured I was doing far too much work, so I attacked again," said Routley.

The crowds rooted for Routley the whole way, the only B.C. rider left in the break. "It was amazing, the crowd was just going crazy," he said.

He successfully dropped one of the riders on a climb, leaving just two riders left for the final two laps.

The remaining rider drafted Routley heading into the last lap, before passing him on the final climb of the day to take the win by a margin of just five seconds.

"Of course I wanted to win, but I was happy. I had a pretty remarkable ride to finish second in this race, and I learned a lot of strategy," said Routley.

The icing on the cake came the following day when it was announced that he would be joining the Canadian Team in the Road World Championships in Italy on Oct. 1.

He leaves for Europe in mid-August, and will take part in more than a dozen road races over a five week period in preparation for the championships. He will be joined on the national team by two of his Symmetrics teammates, Cam Evans and Svein Tuft. Like Routley, who turned 21 this year, Evans is also in the Under 23 Espoir category, which races separately from the elite category.

"It’s pretty unheard of to have three riders from the same team make it in one year. We’re just a small team, but we’re half of the national team," said Routley. "It’s good to race with Cam, because we know each other and can help each other out. It’s all strategy at this level, so it helps to have someone out there who knows you and what you can do, and you know the same about them.

"The level of competition is going to be pretty crazy, those European Espoir riders are really strong, but we’re coming off an amazing season so we’re both pretty confident going in there," said Routley. "And we’re going to get in a lot of races ahead of time to get up to speed, so we should be pretty ready by then."

Routley is disappointed that he’ll miss the opportunity to defend his Samurai of Singletrack title, and race in the Cheakamus Challenge and West Side Wheel Up.

"It sucks in a way because those are the races I grew up with, that’s where I learned to love racing bikes, but I guess it’s on to other things," said Routley.

Until he leaves for Europe he’ll be take a week of rest in Whistler before getting back on his road bike for training.

He also plans to race in a few WORCA Loonie events, where he is undefeated this year.

"It’s a short break for me, but I’ll take it," said Routley.