A new era is beginning in Island cycling, bringing with it a blank page waiting to be filled.
The notorious Crash Corner at Yates and Wharf streets of the past 23 annual Bastion Square Grand Prix races will be replaced beginning today with, perhaps, the Hansard Hazard, as the annual race moves to a route encircling the legislature.
Champions in wheel-to-wheel racing on the former, tight Bastion Square route included Olympic medallists Alison Sydor and Brian Walton, world champion Roland Green and Olympians Erinne Willock, Gina Grain and Andreas Hestler.
What new stories await to be written with the new Accent Inns/Russ Hay鈥檚 Grand Prix circuit around the legislative precinct? The racing begins this morning at 8. The women鈥檚 elite race is at noon and the men鈥檚 elite race at 1 p.m.
The Timbits Challenge for kids is 11 a.m., followed by the Victoria Volkswagen Celebrity Bike Relay, in which Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps will take on Olympians and other world-class athletes.
Crash Corner will be missed by some, not others.
鈥淭his is a safer [Grand Prix] course,鈥� said lawyer Robert Cameron, an avid cyclist and sponsor of the weekend of cycling. 鈥淩ider safety has to be a paramount consideration. They really go all-out and sometimes you have to protect them from themselves. We will keep it safe and keep it fun. You can have a spectacle, even without the crashes.鈥�
Cody Canning, the 2015 sa国际传媒 criterium champion, agrees. Races on downtown city courses are known as grand prixs or criteriums.
鈥淸The new legislature precinct route] is a longer loop than Bastion Square was, but it is still a classic criterium course,鈥� said Canning, also the 2014 sa国际传媒 road race champion.
It鈥檚 all part of the Robert W. Cameron Law Cycling Series weekend, which began Friday night with the Peninsula Co-op Sprint Classic at Western Speedway and continued with the Cheemos Perogies Cycling Classic road race through Metchosin on Saturday.
Craig Richey, who has represented sa国际传媒 at the cyclo-cross world championships, won the 120-kilometre men鈥檚 road race in 3:11:17.
鈥淚t was tough out there, the going was hard,鈥� said Richey. 鈥淚鈥檓 one of the mentors of our team [Trek-Red Truck] and try to share my experience,鈥� the 30-year-old veteran rider said.
Jordan Landolt was second and Isaac LeBlanc third.
The 80-kilometre women鈥檚 race Saturday was won in 2:35:10 by Maggie Coles-Lyster, only 16 and the youngest rider in the field, who showed why she is being pegged for future Olympics and world championships.
鈥淚 love this course. It鈥檚 got some great hills,鈥� said the Maple Ridge prodigy, who is preparing for today鈥檚 Grand Prix around the Legislature, the Canadian championships in Quebec and the 2016 world cyclo-cross championships in Belgium.
Janna Gillick was second and Brenna Pauly third.
On late Friday night, the 2013 Canadian and 2015 sa国际传媒 time trial champion Curtis Dearden won the men鈥檚 elite title of the Peninsula Co-op Sprint Classic at Western Speedway as he and Dylan Davies lapped the field. Davies ended up crashing before taking the runner-up placing with Ty Andrews third.
Canning, meanwhile, won the men鈥檚 open championship in a furious sprint to the wire with John Willcox, with Noah Epp third.
Coles-Lyster, who won four gold medals at the 2014 national track cycling championships, took both the women鈥檚 elite and open sprint titles at Western Speedway. Allie Guenther was second and Gillian Ellsay third in the elite race with Guenther second and Shannon Baerg third in the open.
