a 6-page feature on the race`s return!

feature
The Rebirth of the
Gastown
Grand Prix
by Kris Westwood
52
Canadian Cycling June & July 2013
Photo: Peter So
Forty years from the Vancouver criterium’s
inception, the race is now going strong
ABOVE
Participants of
the 2012 Gastown
Grand Prix ride on a
cobblestone street
B
arrelling into the final corner, three riders stood
between Gord Fraser and victory in the 1993
Gastown Grand Prix. Ahead of Fraser, the Coors
Light team had set up their fast men – Italian Roberto
Gaggioli and Americans Scott McKinley and Ron Kiefel.
Fraser, an Ottawa native, was sitting fourth wheel and
looking good: all he needed was a podium finish to snatch
the Canadian Tire Canada Cup criterium series title from
Roland Green. But the only thing on his mind was winning.
“Back then, I was probably the only one who could compete with Coors Light,
and they had a pretty good lead-out train,” Fraser recalls. “And their lead-out
man was coming back and he saw me coming and he forced me way right,
which is really too tight on entry. And entering the final right-hand turn on
the very right-hand side of the road at 60 km/h – the math doesn’t work. I’m
either going to lay it down with a severe lean angle or I’m going to run out of
exit space.”
As Coors Light raced ahead to sweep the podium, Fraser skidded across the
pavement and triggered one of the biggest pileups in the 20-year history of a
cyclingmagazine.ca
53
“I’m either going to
lay it down with a
severe lean angle or
I’m going to run out
of exit space.”
race that had become the jewel in the crown of West Coast
racing, attracting riders who’d be future Tour de France
stars, such as Alex Stieda and Tyler Farrar.
The crash cost Fraser the race and the points title, and
led to finger pointing over who was to blame. But the
race that the riders had put so much on the line for was
about to disappear for nearly a decade. Revived in 2002,
it struggled to find firm financial footing and faded away
again after the 2008 edition.
The Gastown Grand Prix, it seemed, had joined the
long list of classic Canadian bike races – such as QuebecMontreal, Winnipeg-Kenora, the Cobblestone Classic, the
Dunlop Trophy, the Queen’s Park Criterium – that have
shone brightly before disappearing forever.
I
top
Ron Hayman crosses the finish line
to win the Vancouver race
The 1982 Gastown Grand Prix featured (front
row, from left) Eric Heiden, Martin Willock,
Ron Hayman and Alex Stieda. Roger Sumner,
the race founder, sits at the far right.
54
Canadian Cycling June & July 2013
Above
Gord Fraser celebrates his second
Gastown Grand Prix victory in 2005
with a swig of champagne
Ron Hayman, one of Canada’s earliest professional
cyclists, was a 18-year-old Vancouverite on the start line
in 1973. He would go on to win Gastown three times – more
than any other rider – but it would take him eight years to
reach the top step of the podium. By the late ’70s, Hayman
was spending most of his time racing in Belgium, but he
was usually home for Gastown. In 1981, Hayman was part
of the new 7-Eleven team, which would change North
American cycling, and Gastown, completely.
With team support from the likes of Eric Heiden and Greg
Demgen, Hayman launched the team’s domination of the
event – winning three in a row before passing the torch
to fellow Vancouverites Alex Stieda and Brian Walton, as
well as Americans Chris Carmichael and Norm Alvis. From
1981 to 1989, the team would win seven times and turn
Gastown into a showcase of North American talent.
“When 7-Eleven started to focus on Gastown, they
brought all their team. Everybody else had to come along,
too,” says Simon Holwill, who along with Barry Lycett, took
over organization of the race from Sumner in 1980. “You
Photos: Dave Mendenhall, Greg Descantes, Eric Siwik
n 1973, the late Dr. Roger Sumner looked at the twisty,
cobbled and café-lined streets of downtown Vancouver’s
Gastown and saw an ideal venue for a race to highlight
the booming sport of cycling. The doctor, a Vancouverite,
was a cyclist himself. He even rode in his own race until
1978. Later, he was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
The first race – won by the feisty Bill Wild, who
battled Kiwi Max Grace on the way to victory – was an
immediate success. The event became a fixture on the B.C.
calendar and soon drew the attention of riders across the
Pacific Northwest.
Photos: PhotoSport International uk usa asia, Greg Descantes
Above
The peloton rides on West Cordova Street
during the 2012 Gastown Grand Prix
Right
Alex Stieda at
the 1991 Gastown
Grand Prix
couldn’t just let them walk away and steal all the money,
right? You had to at least show up.”
It didn’t hurt that local riders were usually the stars of
the show. “We were really lucky because in Canada it was
always either B.C. or Quebec that had all the national team
riders and the Quebec guys never seemed to want to come
out and race criteriums, which was fine,” says Holwill.
“So we started having lots of local success. And the other
thing, too, was that these guys put on a hell of a show.”
The race was equally important to the local riders, such
as Hayman and Stieda. “It’s the one time you had to show
your stuff in front of your colleagues, your friends, your
supporters and your family,” says Hayman. “I joked it left
me as nervous as the world champs. I think they ranked
equally No. 1 in nerves.”
“It spurred me on, absolutely,” says Alex Stieda, who
won the race in 1980 and 1984 and would go on to be the
first North American to wear the Tour de France yellow
jersey. “It gave me the confidence, the feeling that ‘Hey, I
can win races. I can do this.’”
cyclingmagazine.ca
55
B
y the end of the 1980s, cycling had grown in
profile. For Gastown, that rise in popularity
meant TV coverage and a big cash injection from
Canada Cup sponsor Canadian Tire. “It was probably the
best sponsorship cycling ever had in this country,” says
Holwill. But by 1993, Canadian Tire was ready to move on
to other things. In October, Holwill and Lycett got the bad
news: the company was pulling its sponsorship.
“By the time they told us, it was going to be pretty hard
for us to find that money moving forward,” Holwill says.
“Having said that, it’s our own fault. We were getting huge
crowds, huge money in the race, all of the best riders for
that style of racing – we should have been able to do a
better job of marketing it.”
The race would disappear for eight years before
returning in 2002 with new organizers. While the
event struggled financially, the racing was as fierce as
ever. Fraser was back to take care of some unfinished
56
Canadian Cycling June & July 2013
business. He ranks his victories in 2003 and 2005
among the best of his career, including one that saw
him working with future Tour de France stage winner
Tyler Farrar.
“The way I won the second one, in ’05, just being a
two-man wrecking crew with Tyler Farrar – that was
really a highlight” he says. “I have the memory of Tyler
leading me out. I was in awe of his power. I was on his
wheel thinking ‘I’m glad he’s on my team, and he probably
won’t be on my team much longer.’”
After Andrew Pinfold won the 2008 edition, the race
disappeared once again, until a local businessman noticed
something was missing. “I went to the race in 2007 and
2008 because our office is circled by the race course, and
I really had a fun time,” says Warren Roy, CEO of Global
Relay. After realizing the race wasn’t happening anymore,
Roy approached the local business association and found
out it had stopped because of a lack of sponsorship.
above Left
The 1977
Gastown
Grand Prix
in Vancouver
above
Gord Fraser
beats Alex
Candelario to
win the 2003
Gastown
Grand Prix
below
The 2012
Gastown
Grand Prix
Photos: John Denniston, Greg Descantes, davidmccolm.com
“I hear a lot of people
talk about that race,
in particular noncyclists who don’t
follow the sport. They
know Gastown is a
great cycling event
and they want to
come and watch.”
Photos: PhotoSport International uk usa asia, Mark Bates / 321photos.ca
W
“I don’t have a cycling background but I love sports,
so I appreciate what it takes to do this. When I stopped
to think about it, I realized it was a great opportunity for
my company to host something like that.” But in a twist
on traditional sponsorship deals, Roy didn’t want to use
the event to advertise to clients. Global Relay is in the
business of archiving emails for financial institutions
around the world. Thanks to new regulations, business
is booming and the company was having a hard time
keeping up with demand.
“Our No. 1 goal behind running the race was to build
the company’s brand locally for the purpose of bringing
on employees. It was never to make money or bring on
customers,” says Roy, who also chipped in thousands of
hours of his and his employees’ time to help run the event.
Thanks to local radio and TV coverage, the results were
“a magnitude better” than he had hoped. “I think we had
200 resumés in two days. It was absolutely astounding.”
ith former national team cyclist Mark
Ernsting’s M1 Sports Management taking
care of the race organization, Gastown was
back on July 11, 2012, a Wednesday night in the middle of
B.C. Superweek and better than ever.
“I think in terms of the fan interest and the hype and
the buzz, the race was at an all-time high, really,” says
Fraser, who returned as commentator for the event’s video
broadcast, which was streamed on the web. Fraser’s sentiment was shared by the riders, who were vying for a shot
at the $15,000 top prize for the men’s event. (The women
were racing for an $8,000 top prize.)
“Thirty-thousand spectators screaming their heads
off, good weather, fast exciting racing – that is a night that
promotes cycling and makes it fun for the masses,” says
Whistler native Will Routley, who races for the Belgiumbased team Accent.Jobs-Wanty. In 2012, when he was in
Europe racing for SpiderTech, Routley made the trek back
home for Gastown, in which he helped his then teammate
Ryan Anderson to second place. “I hear a lot of people
talk about that race, in particular non-cyclists who don’t
follow the sport. They know Gastown is a great cycling
event and they want to come and watch.”
The return of Gastown had special significance
for another person with deep roots in the event. When
Sumner died in 2000, his wife offered former organizer
Barry Lycett his pick of the cycling hall-of-famer’s memorabilia. All Lycett wanted was the Gastown trophy – an
enamelled cup donated in 1973 by then-mayor Art Phillips.
Lycett renamed the Mayor’s Cup the Sumner Trophy. “The
Stanley Cup has a keeper and I’m a keeper for the Gastown
trophy, “ says Lycett, who now lives in Victoria. “I look after
it and I put the names on each year.”
This year, Gastown will be run once again during B.C.
Superweek on July 10. And there should be more racing in
years to come. “The commitment that we made with the
city was for five years, but the actual agreement allows
us to own it in perpetuity,” says Warren Roy. “We think we
can turn Gastown into a real jewel.”
above
Christian Meier
leads the chase at
the 2012 Gastown
Grand Prix
left
The 2012
Gastown
Grand Prix
cyclingmagazine.ca
57