Home tour a ride in the park f

Home tour a ride in the park for pro racer Tuft

by Al Campbell

VANCOUVER, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Canada's up-and-coming cyclist got a close-up look and lesson on what it takes to be among the world's best riders when Pro Tour regular Svien Tuft won the Tour de White Rock's "maximum collision" Replica watches race Saturday in advance of the road race final.

Racing on a one-kilometer square road course in the Vancouver suburb city on the Canada-U.S. border, the 33-year-old Tuft who resides in nearby Langley completed the 60-kilometer circuit in 1:08:24, 22 seconds ahead of runner-up Jamie Sparling. Christian Meier, who races with Tuft for the Garmin-Transition team in Europe, was third, 26 seconds back.

National champion Tuft who finished seventh in the time trials at the 2008 Bejiing Olympic Games, the highest ever finish by a Canadian, lapped most of the field in White Rock, using the race as a tune-up before he returns to Europe at the end of the month.

During the peak of the race when he was more than a half lap ahead of the field, Tuft, the 2007 US Open champion, demonstrated his consistency by posting a string of consecutive laps each within one-tenth of a second of each other.

"I just came out here to give it everything and it's that kind of course. It's really difficult. There were times on the backstretch where you are wondering 'how many time can I do this?' It was a great night," he said.

For Tuft who has pulled off such feats as cycling from Vancouver to Alaska and back, a round-trip journey of nearly 6,000 kilometers, as well as competing in the 3,485 kilometer Giro d' Italia in May, the 60 kilometer White Rock race was a relative ride in the park.

"On a difficult course like this it's one where you commit 100 per cent and you get a gap and you can drive it. When you get that initial bit it hurts so bad, but you have to be willing to put 100 per cent in. And once you snap it, once you crack the group, then it's over. You have to settle in a rhythm that you are capable of holding. I mean it's tough because that back stretch is hard and you just have to every time just stay concentrated, stay focused and just keep on top of that gear or else you crack.

"It's very concentrated this effort in this hour. I will never say it is easy but there are days when you feel like that in the Giro (in Italy) for six hours. So mentally it just kind of prepares you to handle a lot more."

With John Tolkamp in attendance for the race, the president of the Canadian Cycling Association said events such as the Tour de White Rock and last week's Tour de Delta in nearby Ladner, the two races that make up "BC Superweek", provided a valuable opportunity for amateur racers to gauge their ability against the pros.

Most the riders in the three-day tour, which involves the hilltop, maximum collision and the road race stages, are amateurs with a handful of professionals competing for a 15,000 Canadian dollar prize purse.

"This type of a race actually sits more on the development side of things. We have some phenomenal pros out here tonight Replica watches but it's really the local amateurs, the amateur teams that come out. These types of races give them the chance to race against the pros," he said.

"It is also a great way for the up-and-coming talent to get identified. A lot of guys who have done well here, or women who have done well here have gone on
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