Orange was the color of the day for the Tour de Delta’s MK Delta Lands Criterium as Silber Pro Cycling crossed the finish line for the third consecutive year.
While the team was the same; the rider wearing the jersey was different than the rider for the past two years.
Prior to the race Silber Senior rider Ryan Roth had his sights set on pulling off a three-peat, but this year it was a fellow teammate who crossed the line to capture the title.
Quebec’s Elliot Doyle (who calls Laval home) made a late attack and managed to cross the line claiming the first place title, while Roth finished 19th overall, but a team win is a win.
In a post race interview with as seen on Delta TV Doyle mentioned “It’s my third year at BC Superweek, and last year I finished fifth two times and fourth two times, to win this race in front of some of the great cyclists is perfect.”
He continued “Our idea was to lead out as late as possible, with Ryan (Roth), Kris (Dahl), and me, so we executed the plan perfectly.”
The race (55 minute timed race plus five laps) was mentioned prior to the start and different from past races this wasn’t decided until the last lap heading down into the final turn.
The race saw different riders taking the lead in various laps, each encouraging one another on, with some thinking it would be Rally Cycling pulling off the win, but Silber had other plans and patience proved a virtue.
Germany’s Florenz Knauer (27) finished second (albeit he lists his home town as Delta) but made multiple podium appearances at BC Superweek since his first ride in 2012.
He was a humble winner and mentioned “It’s special for me because in my first year, I met my girlfriend here. Since 2013, we’ve been together and in September, I’m looking to move here to make it serious.”
He is a lone rider and knew what the race meant and used his past four years of experience and anticipated a bunch of riders to sprint in the last few laps, but it never happened.
He continued “I thought it would be a group because the last two or three years, it was always a group and I looked at some riders who I would go with if they were in the group, but they didn’t make the move, so I sat on.”
Silber Pro Cycling took two of the first three spots with Calgary’s Kris Dahl (23) taking a third place third.
He (Kris Dahl) grabbed two podium appearances at BC Superweek last year finishing 2nd at UBC Grand Prix and the Giro di Burnaby.