Something familiar gate-crashed something fresh Sunday on the streets of the capital.
A new era began in Island cycling with an old face, as Craig Richey won the inaugural Accent Inns/Russ Hay鈥檚 Grand Prix around the legislature. Richey was also the winner in 2011 during the 23 previous years the annual race was held on a circuit around Bastion Square on a champions list that included Olympic medallists Alison Sydor and Brian Walton, world champion Roland Green and Olympians Erinne Willock, Gina Grain and Andreas Hestler.
The race was moved to the legislative precinct this year and proved successful,with a large gallery following the drama as Richey overtook 2013 Canadian and 2015 sa国际传媒 timetrial champion Curtis Dearden with two laps remaining to win in one hour, seven minutes, 53 seconds to runner-up Dearden鈥檚 1:08:06.
鈥淚t was more instinct than planned tactic,鈥� Richey said of his late move. 鈥淚t was quite a battle. My vision was getting blurry. It took everything I had.鈥�
Jeffrey Werner was third in 1:08:24.
The men鈥檚 race consisted of 50 laps around the nearly one-kilometre loop around the legislature. The new route isn鈥檛 as constricted as the one around Bastion Square 鈥� which featured tight wheel-to-wheel racing and the infamous Crash Corner at Yates and Wharf 鈥� but Richey described the legislative circuit as 鈥渄eceptively hard and fairly challenging.鈥�
The women鈥檚 race, won in 55:13:00 by former national junior champion Kinley Gibson of Edmonton, was 35 laps.
Maggie Coles-Lyster, at 16 the youngest rider in the field, again showed why she is being talked about for future Olympics and world championships. She placed second in 55:13:30, with 2010 champion Leah Guloien third.
The day began with the Volkswagen Celebrity Bike Relay, in which Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps took on a field that included Olympic-medallists Sydor and Simon Whitfield.
It was 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 Saturday through Metchosin.
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. The 80-km women鈥檚 road race was won in 2:35:10 by Coles-Lyster.
Dearden won the men鈥檚 elite title of the Peninsula Co-op Sprint Classic on Friday. Teen prodigy Coles-Lyster, who won four gold medals at the 2014 national track cycling championships, took the women鈥檚 elite title.
