Posted 07/12/2008
Racing News

Canadian Olympian Tuft kicks off BC Superweek with win

Courtesy Tour de Delta

Langley’s Svein Tuft kicked off BC Superweek and the Tour de Delta Friday night the same way he finished last weekend’s Canadian Time Trial Championships, and the same way he hopes to finish at next month’s Olympics in Beijing: well out in front.

Tuft won the inaugural Brenco Prologue, hammering through the leg-shaking 3.2-kilometer time trial in just three minutes and 44.16 seconds, more than five seconds ahead of Symmetrics Pro Cycling teammate and North Vancouver’s Andrew Pinfold. Bissel Pro Cycling Team’s Scott Zwizanski of Sausalito, California finished third.

“It’s a hard event because the intensity over such a short period, so you really pay for it,” Tuft said. “You have to go right into the hurt locker and just sit there the whole time and man, it’s hard.”

It was the first year for the time-trial race through the streets of North Delta, which replaced the old Tour de Delta Hillclimb. Blasting down a large steel ramp onto the lightning quick course, the so-called “race of truth" saw cyclists go up against the clock on special time-trial bikes at speeds up to 60 kilometers an hour.

For Tuft, the biggest challenge Friday was adjusting to a course shorter than Prologues he’s used to – and a lot shorter than the 40-kilometer Time Trial he dominated at the Canadian Championships.

“It’s different from the pacing of a 40k; these kinds of courses you just have to lay everything out there,” he said. “There’s no point where you can back off. In a 40k you can pick sections to recover, but here it’s just as hard as you can go the whole time.”

Zwizanski’s challenge, in addition to unseating a strong showing from the powerful, locally-based Symmetrics squad – Zach Bell, also bound for Beijing, was fifth and veteran Eric Wohlberg, a three-time Canadian Olympian, was seventh – included getting a race tire off Bissel teammate Garrett Peltonen, who went out 10 minutes earlier and finished sixth, but didn’t get to rest to enjoy his result.

“He had to get off his bike and get off the wheel for me,” Zwizanski said with a laugh, pointing out sharing was necessary as most of Bissel’s team was down at the Cascade Classic in Oregon. “We made sure we were gapped. Originally they had us just five minutes apart, but they moved us to 10 minutes and it worked out just fine. You just have to focus on turning it over in as big a gear as you can and going fast and know it’s only three or four minutes and you’ll still be alive at the end so you just kind of suffer as much as you can.”

While there was little surprise to see Tuft and his Symmetrics teammates atop winner’s list, Australian Ruth Corset seemed to be the most surprised to see her name atop the women’s names.

Corset, who is part of New Zealand’s Jazz Apple Cycling Team, finished in a time of 4:23.98, less than a second ahead of Calgary native Laura Brown from the local Giant Bicycles/Team Whistler squad, and two seconds faster than Richmond’s Sarah Stewart of the Okanagan-based Total Restoration Cycling Team.

“I’m not a time trial rider so I was just really shocked when I found out I won it,” said Corset, “I’m more of a hill climber so I was very surprised . I was hoping the course would be like last year, straight up a hill, so I was quite disappointed when I found out it was more of a flat time trial course, and that’s why it was such a surprise.”

Corset is part of a development team led by New Zealand cycling legend – and two-time Olympian – Susy Pryde. At 30, Corset is by far the oldest member on a young team, but the former tri-athlete only took up competitive cycling three years ago, leaving her daughters, age four and six, home in Australia with her husband for this, her first taste of racing internationally. A quick learner, she won the Mt. Hamilton Road Race in San Jose back on May 25.

“This is my first time racing internationally so it’s all new to me” she said. “I’m learning so much, I’ve only been over here for three months and racing overseas for three months. We’re learning to gel well together and hoping to have a really good tour this week.”

So is Tuft, who in the last two seasons has won the US Open in front of 8 million viewers on NBC, the International Cycling Union’s America Tour title (as both an individual and the Symmetrics squad that won the team award), three gold medals at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Uruguay, the prestigious six-stage Tour de Beauce in Quebec, the Yaletown Grand Prix on Canada Day, and the Canadian National Time Trial Championships last weekend.

For all his international success, nothing compares to being home.

“To race back home is always great and BC this time of the year is just beauty,” said Tuft. “So for me coming into Beijing I’m going to be doing a heat camp after this, so this is a great block to really just fine tune the engine and just work on what I need to focus on. I’ll be doing extra miles every day and racing as hard as I can here.”

Tuft will swap the Canadian jersey he wore Friday for the Tour de Delta leader’s jersey as racing continues with the Lehigh Criterium in Ladner on Saturday and the White Spot Road Race on Sunday. After the Tour de Delta finishes, BC Superweek continues with the Tour de Gastown and Giro di Burnaby mid week before wrapping up with the historic three-race Tour de White Rock from July 18-20.

For more BC Superweek information visit our website at www.bcsuperweek.ca

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