Rally Cycling’s Adam de Vos soloed to the win at the UCI 1.2 White Spot road race on Sunday in Delta, British Columbia. Joined by Nigel Ellsay in a day-long breakaway, the two riders wore down the lead group until de Vos escaped in the finale. Eric Young won the field sprint for third. The women’s race ended in a field sprint where Kirsti Lay sprinted to an impressive third place.
On an extremely hot and technical urban circuit just south of Vancouver, the men clashed for 155 km of racing. Adam de Vos, only a short ferry ride away from his home in Victoria, made a final selection of two riders with two laps remaining and attacked inside one kilometer to go for the win.
“It’s an amazing feeling to win,” said de Vos. “To race a UCI race after sleeping in my own bed the night before is something I’ve never experienced.”
Held just weeks after the national road race where Nigel Ellsay and Adam de Vos finished in third and fourth place, the duo were back in familiar territory.
“Nigel Ellsay and I were trading attacks, trying to thin our group down,” said de Vos. “We had good practice at Nationals the other week so we knew how to use each other out there.”
De Vos is known as a “sneaky fox” and his craftiness was on full display on Sunday.
“We rolled off the front, super slow and then all of the sudden we had a gap,” de Vos added. “Once you have the gap, no one wants to make the big effort to chase you down when Nigel is sitting in the draft not cooperating. It’s crazy in those hard races with a larger breakaway group. I probably tried five full gas attacks before that and the one that works was just riding away.”
Lay continues team’s success on Canadian soil
Earlier in the day, the women of Rally Cycling set out for eight laps of the circuit for a total of 103 km. With a number of sprint teams taking the start, it was a controlled race with no breakaways gaining significant time.
Kirsti Lay was the team’s protected sprinter and with the help of her teammates, was in a position to launch her sprint from 200 meters out. She finished third in the drag race to the line.
“I’m definitely happy to get a podium for Rally in the only UCI road race this week and to do it in Canada is special,” said Lay. “The race was quite mellow, with teams clearly riding for a bunch sprint. We figured it would play out like that before the start so our goal was to have Summer Moak and me in a good position for the last km and to play off some of the other teams that have strong lead-out trains.”
With consistent podium finishes so far, Lay is clearly set on the top step of the podium with six race remaining in BC Superweek.
“The girls rode great, we are learning a lot as a team and hopefully we can crack that top spot soon,” said Lay. “The New West Grand Prix on Tuesday will be a bit different with a lot of elevation gain and I think that course plays more to the strengths of our team here. Can’t wait!”
White Spot UCI 1.2 Men’s Road Race Results
1 DE VOS Adam Rally Cycling 3:30:12.4
2 MARSHALL Kaler Langlois Brown 3:30:16.0 00:03.6
3 YOUNG Eric Rally Cycling 3:30:41.6 00:29.2
4 JEAN Emile Silber Pro Cycling
5 HATZ Christopher Herrmann Radteam
6 RUPNIK Jure H&R Block Pro Cycling
7 KIRBY Quinten Marc Pro Cycling
8 MURRAY Gavin Marc Pro Cycling
9 RATHE Jacob JELLY BELLY P/B MAXXIS
10 BURTNIK Evan Canadian National Team / Race Clean
White Spot UCI 1.2 Women’s Road Race Results
1 RYAN Kendall Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank 2:42:30.8
2 WILLIAMS Lily Hagens Berman Supermint
3 LAY Kristi Rally Cycling
4 OWEN Harriet Hagens Berman Supermint
5 LEMIEUX Raphaele LA Sweat
6 TEDDERGREEN Starla Hagens Berman Supermint
7 MEISELS Esther Point S Nokian
8 BLAIS Marie-Soleil Desjardins-Ford P/B Cromwell
9 MULLENS Peta Hagens Berman Supermint
10 JACKSON Alison Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank
