The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is one of the most anticipated criteriums in North America and it lived up to its billing in a big way on Tuesday night, with the largest women’s field thus far for a BC Superweek race in 2014, with 75 women, and 120 men on the start line at the intersection of Water and Cambie.
In the men’s race, Luke Keough of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling sprinted inches ahead of North Vancouver’s Ryan Anderson of Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies to take home the prize in the men’s 50-lap, 60 kilometre race. It’s Keough’s second straight victory at BC Superweek, after winning the UBC Grand Prix p/b Mahony & Sons just 24 hours earlier.
The final lap looked like it would come down to a sprint and indeed it did. Anderson, who was second in Sunday’s White Spot | Delta Road Race and third in Saturday’s Brenco Criterium in Ladner, went for it just a bit too late.
Winnipeg’s Leah Kirchmann of Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies, who makes her home in Squamish, provided the fastest overall time in the women’s race Wednesday night, winning and claiming the $13,000 first prize in a sprint to the finish ahead of New Zealander Jo Kiesanowski of Team TIBCO To The Top.
The women’s prize is the largest in North America – and one of the largest in the world – for a women’s criterium, and as Kirchmann said, is “a monumental achievement for me in my career, and my team – and for women’s cycling”