Preston Street Races- June 20, 2010, by Doug Corner

click for bigger. photo courtesy www.cyclingphotos.ca/There are so many stories that come out of a day of racing and we want to highlight a few.

We were required to place more volunteers and more barricades around the course this year. It took more time to get the numbers together but we received an excellent response from the cycling community. A big thank you to all those that helped between 9: 00 am and 5:00 pm. with the many tasks that have to be carried out, both around the course and at the Start/Finish area. This includes the announcers, prime coordinators, race timing/lap cards, marshals, street captains, food distribution etc.

This year, we were required to remove all cars from all locations around the circuit and this process took longer then we expected. It caused a delay of 30 minutes for the first race and this delay carried through to the rest of the races. Next year, we’ll start the process earlier.

photo courtesy Bernard DurandFor the third year in a row, wet roads created very difficult riding conditions in the Master 2,3 Men race, the Kids race, and the Womens’ race. We shortened the Master 2,3 race in an attempt to avoid the rain but the timing did not work out.

This year, with the help of Rob McClure of the Ottawa Bicycle Club we expanded the age categories of the Kids races. Total participation went from about 30 last year to about 60 this year. A great success. Osmond Bakker continued his great work with the kids aged 7 and under. All this took place during the worst of the rain but the kids handled the conditions very well. A credit to the skills they are being taught in the Learn To Race program.

A new race this year was the Women only event. Credit is due to Allison Lampi who asked us to add this event to the schedule. We also want to thank Ken Power of Power Cycles click for bigger. photo courtesy www.cyclingphotos.ca/who provided the major funding of the prizes for the Senior 1,2  category, and Sylvie Daoust of Cyclefit Chicks who provide the major funding for the Masters category.

The Women’s race started on wet roads and a major crash resulted in a number of riders being unable to continue, including Allison. We wish them all a speedy recovery.

The Senior 1,2 , Master 1 Men race saw 64 riders take to the line about an hour after their scheduled start time. We hope that riders from all the races will post their stories for an inside look at how it all unfolded. 

A big thank you to Mike Bennett at Eurosports for his major funding of the prizes for the last event, the sound system at the finish line, and the shirts for the volunteers.

Ottawa and Gatineau bike stores continue to provide big support for the races as they donated 22 merchandise primes for the four events. Mike Plummer is our ever reliable mechanic in the race pit. 

click for bigger. photo courtesy www.cyclingphotos.ca/Xerox (Ted Damen) provides the very high quality bib numbers and the event banner at the finish line.

The Ottawa Sun/24 (Kris Westwood) provided pre-race promotion and  race-day handouts that enable us to identify the top riders for the spectators.

The Pub Italia has been a long time supporter of this event, both financially and with popular Italian products that are used to balance the winner of the main event on the BRO scale.

The major funding for this annual event continues to be provided by the Preston Street Business Improvement Association and we thank them for their ongoing financial and organizational support.

Until next year… June 19, 2011.

Art Morewood, Carlo Dal-Cin, Doug Corner

2010 Preston Street Criterium from 53 x 11 on Vimeo. Thanks for sharing Brian!