Canadian Olympic Alternate Win’s Women’s Race

The key is don’t let your-self get down.

Things happen and in most cases it ‘s for a reason. Sports have a funny way of playing out and for Steph Roorda, good things come to those who wait.

This race helped Anderson get ready to go overseas; the women’s finish might help Steph Roorda forgot that she isn’t doing the same.

Roorda admits it wasn’t easy to get over being named an alternate to Canada’s Track Team for the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London, but improving on a second-place finish in the first stage of BC Superweek on Friday night by winning the 40-lap Brenco Criterium 24 hours later helped take some of the sting out.

“It was for sure disappointing to not be selected but it’s fun racing here and I have great teammates and a solid group to be racing with,” Roorda said of her Local Ride / Dr. Vie Superfoods squad. “Every day I get on the line I want to battle and I’m happy to be racing. It’s my favorite thing to do and when you train on the track you don’t actually get to do that much racing, so I’m happy to be here doing this.”It also provides some training benefits in case Roorda gets called in to fill in at the Summer Games.

She’ll certainly be prepared for late sprints after following up Friday’s second-place finish by outlasting Joanie Caron (Colavita-espnW Pro Cycling) and Jenny Lehmann (Trek Red Truck) down the final straightaway, finishing the flat 36-kilometer race in one hour and 24.1 seconds.

“The last lap, teammate Lisa [Howard] and I were set up third and fourth wheel and the Trek team started to move on the right and I said to Lisa ‘go’ and she was my lead out and she went as hard as she could and brought me to last corner and I just jumped from there,” Roorda said.

“I knew if I was first around the last corner I had a really good shot at the win.”It was the end of long night of battles between the local Trek Red Truck and Local Ride squads, which is ironic since Howard helped Lehmann get her start in competitive cycling through her Young Women’s Development Program

“Our team worked really well together, we were in every break, and it was launching attacks one after the other between us and we just came up a bit short.

I managed to hop on Steph’s wheel, but just couldn’t come around her at the end.”Roorda will wear the leader’s jersey as the Tour de Delta wraps up with the White Spot Road Race on Sunday morning.

BC Superweek continues with the UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday, July 10, the Gastown Grand Prix on July 11, Giro di Burnaby July 12, and three race Tour de White Rock from July 13 to 15.