It came down to another sprint at the finish line as Kris Yip powered his way to a third straight victory on the Prince George cycling circuit Sunday.
Yip beat Dan Bedard to claim the Evolve Road Race, a 90-kilometre (four, 22.5km laps) trek around the Pineview neighbourhood, clocking two hours 22 minutes 27 seconds. Bedard posted 2:22.28, while Matt Thomson finished in third place with a time of 2:23.42.
The road race was the third of the season organized by the Prince George Cycling Club. Yip, a 39-year-old from Prince George, has won all three so far, pedalling to victory at the season-opening 54-km race April 21 and followed that up with another win on May 11.
"It was a strong group to ride with which made for a hard ride," said Yip. "On every lap we tried to make the group smaller on each climb. By the third lap it was down to three or four of us and we lost Matt on the last climb."
The race featured 16 riders in the men's division and four racers in the women's side.
Prince George's Marika Jurgens emerged as the women's winner, clocking 1:31.17 over 54 km to win her second-straight road race of the season. Kathleen Cunniffe followed in 1:40.14 to finish second, while Lanita Horning was third, clocking 1:47.28. Erica Kane rounded out the pack in fourth, with a time of 1:50.47.
While it may seem like the same ol', same ol' race for outsiders, it's not for Yip.
"Each race is a little bit different," he said. "It all depends on the course. With 90 km, there's quite a bit of climbing and the hills play a big role. There was a good headwind today so it made recovery on the flats hard."
Yip used the race as a tune-up for the Nimby Fifty 37km mountain bike race this Saturday in Whistler.
"This [race] was just a little fine-tuning and I just wanted to see how my fitness was coming along," he said.
The next Prince George Cycling Club's race is a 32.5km time trial on June 5. The Ruckus Road Race (93 km for the men and 46 km for the women) follows on June 8 in the Tabor/Giscome neighbourhood.
Bike to Work week, hosted by the PGCC, begins today and continues until Friday. As of Sunday night, 304 cyclists and 42 teams had registered. Cyclists are welcome to attend a celebration breakfast this morning at City Hall between 7 and 9:30 a.m.
