After a long sporting drought worldwide, people in B.C. are once again able to turn out and experience the thrill of sporting competition.
July 18 saw the annual running of Jeremy’s Roubaix, usually the first of three Cycling BC sanctioned Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows races through the summer.
The event attracts some of the province’s premiere UCI / Cycling BC licensed athletes to do battle in B.C.’s homage to one of the oldest (1896) and some say, the most difficult race in Grand Tour Cycling; the Paris – Roubaix.
The race’s namesake, Jeremy, is a tribute to Jeremy Storie, a respected and loved Canadian cycling team manager, national-level track and road racing coach, who, in 2012, lost his life to depression. Jeremy was a big influence in Canada’s women’s team pursuit. A small part of his legacy was his influence on 2016 Rio Olympic 4,000m bronze medalist Laura Brown, and double bronze medalist Jasmin (Glaesser) Duehring, who will be competing in Tokyo.
The Roubaix has a rich local history, starting off as the Harris Roubaix in 2004, before being changed to Barry’s Roubaix in 2010. The Jeremy’s Roubaix inaugural race was in 2013 and has been an annual fixture in Pitt Meadows every spring since, according to race organizer Barry Lyster, with Local Ride Racing, a local organization that holds competitive races in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
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Jeremy’s Roubaix is an exciting cost-free family day out in the fresh air to take in some high-level bicycle racing. The event is a closed circuit consisting of 10 laps for the elite men, eight laps for the men’s master class, and seven laps for Category 1, 2, 3, and open women’s class.
Jeremy’s Roubaix may not be the 250 kilometre European nightmare of its namesake. But at 74 kms for the women and 92 kms for the men, on mixed surfaces, racers need to be focused.
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This year the challenging course started on Kennedy Road and made its way down to connect with the Dyke trail and back to Kennedy again.
The top racers in the category 1/2 men’s were Sam Harris on Team Mighty on the Rivet, who took first, Kyle Buckosky on Team Red Truck Bear, took second, and Jackon Bocksnick on Tag Race Team, who rounded out the top three.
The event was organized by Local Ride Racing in cooperation with BC Cycling and the City of Pitt Meadows.
– Rob Wilton is a freelance photojournalist in the Lower Mainland
Rjmedia.tech or follow him at @rjmedia.tech on Instagram.
