Kris Yip wasn't surprised his first win of the year on the local bike racing season came down to a sprint finish.
The 40-year-old managed to hold off three other challengers in the final 400 metres to take the Prince George Cycling Club's Ruckus season-opening road race Saturday.
Yip's time of one hour 29.11 minutes over the 54-kilometre course in the Pineview area was one-one hundredth faster than Tom Skinner's time of 1:29:12. Ken Hodges claimed third at 1:29.13. Dan Bedard was fourth, clocking 1:29:14
"You know this course is always going to come down to a sprint," said Yip, who successfully defended his 2014 title. "It's very seldom there's a solo person coming in. You expect it's usually going to come down to half-a-dozen guys."
"The windy conditions today made everyone want to ride together. No one's too keen about trying to take off by themselves. You kind of wait for the selections on the hills and you know the group's going to get smaller and smaller, and by the time the Alpine climb (Drive), that's when it came down to the four of us."
Twenty-nine riders (22 men, seven women) clicked into their pedals Saturday under cool, but sunny skies starting and finishing on the Old Cariboo Highway in front of Pineview elementary.
It was Skinner's first race in Prince George having followed his girlfriend, a first-year medical student in the Northern Medical program, from Victoria. Skinner found a job as a teacher at Harwin elementary.
"There was a group of three or four of us going up Alpine (Drive) and we shared the workload," said the 33-year-old. "It came down to a sprint (at the finish) and Kris beat me by half a bike length."
Yip, who switches gears between his mountain bike and road bike during the racing season, stayed off his bike again during the winter. He cross-country skis to maintain his fitness.
Because of the mild winter, he hopped on his bike four weeks earlier than he usually does.
"We had a really fast group, it shows everyone had a really good winter (of training) and coming into the season strong, so it makes for an interesting race (seeing where everyone's at)," said Yip. "From the start everyone just tries to stay together, kind of catching up with each other. It's a bit of a social. Probably till about the seven or eight-kilometre mark on the highway and there's a rise and that's the start of the race about 10 km in."
The course took the cyclists down the Old Cariboo Highway, Giscome Road and around Tabor Lake, and along Johnson Road prior to the ascent up Alpine Drive, the last of three climbs on the course.
"By the time you hit Johnson there was probably still 10, 15 people still," said Yip, adding he felt good and strong throughout the race. "You know there that's where it's going to start to come apart and when you hit Alpine, that's the final one (hill), and you know who makes it to the top of the Alpine together that's who's going to be coming in, because it is really hard to get away on your own and once you start hitting the winds on the farm roads, on Alpine Drive, that's the group to the finish line.
"Coming in to the finish, it's a tough sprint with the four of us and we ended up starting early and you go from a long ways out and you're probably sprinting from 400 metres out and it's definitely a long one and you've got a bit of a tailwind coming in."
Nikki Kassel clocked 1:33:28 to win the women's race, followed by Mirika Jurgens who crossed the line at 1:41:28. Wendy Fiala was third at 1:41:30.
The next Prince George Cycling Club road race is Sunday, May 10 at 10:30 a.m. The race starts and finishes at the intersection of Pooley Road and Taborview Road.
The men will cover a distance of 62 km, while the women will ride 42 km.
In the meantime, everyone is welcome to join the group rides on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
More information can be found at www.pgcyclingclub.ca
For a complete set of results from Saturday's race, see page 14.
