After a long sports drought around the world, the people of British Columbia are once again able to participate and experience the thrill of competitive sports.

July 18 saw the annual Jeremy’s Roubaix race, usually the first of three Maple Ridge races sanctioned by Cycling BC over the summer.

The event attracts some of the province’s top UCI / Cycling BC licensees to fight in British Columbia’s tribute to one of the oldest (1896) and, according to some, the toughest race in the Grand Tour Cycling; Paris – Roubaix.

The namesake of the race, Jeremy, is a tribute to Jeremy Storie, a respected and beloved Canadian Cycling Team Director, national level track and road racing coach, who in 2012 lost his life to cause of depression. Jeremy has been a huge influence in the women’s team pursuit in Canada. A small part of her legacy has been her influence on Laura Brown, bronze medalist at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and two-time bronze medalist Jasmin (Glaesser) Duehring, who will compete in Tokyo.

The Roubaix has a rich local history, starting as Harris Roubaix in 2004, before being changed to Barry’s Roubaix in 2010. The inaugural Jeremy’s Roubaix race was held in 2013 and was an annual rendezvous in Pitt Meadows every spring since, depending on the breed. organizer Barry Lyster, along with Local Ride Racing, a local organization that hosts competitive races in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

Jeremy’s Roubaix is ​​an exciting and free family day out in the great outdoors to attend high-level cycling races. The event is a closed circuit consisting of 10 laps for elite men, eight laps for the master class men and seven laps for categories 1, 2, 3 and the open class women.

Jeremy’s Roubaix may not be the 250-kilometer European nightmare of its namesake. But at 74 km for women and 92 km for men, on mixed surfaces, runners need to be focused.

This year the difficult route started on Kennedy Road and went down to join the Dyke Trail and back to Kennedy.

The top riders in the 1/2 men category were Sam Harris on Team Mighty on the Rivet, which took first place, Kyle Buckosky on Team Red Truck Bear, finished second, and Jackon Bocksnick on Tag Race Team, who completed the top three.

The event was organized by Local Ride Racing in collaboration with BC Cycling and the town of Pitt Meadows.

– Rob wilton is a freelance photojournalist in the Lower Mainland

Rjmedia.tech or follow him on @ rjmedia.tech on Instagram.

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