Vancouver, B.C. – Andrew Pinfold of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis finished off a strong opening weekend of B.C. Superweek by winning the White Spot Road Race, the final stage of the Tour de Delta, Sunday. It was the third straight year Pinfold has won this stage.

Pinfold was part of a four-rider break initiated by Bissell’s Morgan Schmitt that went off the front early in the final 8km lap of the 140km race.

“Zach Bell (Kelly Benefits) and I had been doing a lot of work to bring back a break right before then,” Pinfold said. “I figured that if we could get it back together for a bunch sprint, even if I was a bit gassed, I’d still be good enough to get a result and hold onto third overall.”

But when they hit the first hill on the final lap, a 500-meter climb, Schmitt hit the gas and, “I decided to give it a try,” Pinfold said.

Race leader Ryan Anderson (Kelly Benefits) and 2nd overall Will Routley (Jelly Belly) both saw the danger in the move and quickly joined Pinfold and Schmitt.

“Morgan was looking to move up on the overall and Ryan, Will and I wanted to preserve their leads, so we worked pretty well together,” Pinfold said. “I was cramping a bit at the top of the climb but was able to recover and actually trade off some pulls with Morgan.”

The four riders opened a solid gap on the field, that ended up at 0:26 by the finish. Pinfold easily outsprinted Anderson and Schmitt for the win, while Routley took 4th. The win gave Pinfold a 10-second time bonus that also jumped him up to 2nd overall for the three-stage race.

In Saturday’s criterium, Pinfold had excellent help from teammate Roman Kilun in earning 2nd place in a photo finish with Anderson, despite Kilun being involved in what looking like a pretty serious crash mid-race.

“(Kirk) O’Bee (Bissell) went down and Roman tried to swerve to avoid him but ended up plowing into Kirk and basically going airborne over the barriers into the crowd,” Pinfold described. “I was about mid-pack and when I came by Roman was laying face-down and it looked bad. They neutralized the race, and when we came back around again, he was sitting upright. The next thing I know, he’s back in the pack. He even won a $100 preme later in the race.”

Kilun also led out Pinfold for a large crowd preme with a couple laps remaining in the criterium.

“Roman rode really well Saturday and Sunday,” Pinfold said. “That was pretty impressive after the crash he had.”

BC Superweek continues this coming weekend with the three-day Tour de White Rock.

Photo: Greg Descantes