Sisters Samantha and Skylar Schneider train together, push each other, compete against each other, and work for each other on the ISCorp p/b Smart Choice MRI team — and both made an appearance on the podium at the 2015 UBC Grand Prix p/b Mahony & Sons.
Samantha, 24, sprinted ahead of Ale-Cipollini’s Shelley Olds, who posted a top-three finish at B.C. Superweek for the fourth straight night. Olds, riding the series without any teammates, was third in Friday’s MK Delta Lands Criterium, second in Saturday’s Brenco Criterium, and won the White Spot Delta Road Race on Sunday.
The race saw a number of riders break away, but the peloton brought them back each and every time, with the new course for the UBC Grand Prix played a big role in that happening.
“After the climb, it’s a bit of a headwind and a downhill, so it’s a little harder in the break to ride, especially after the climb,” said Olds. “Somebody attacks and then you have to close it, and then attack… it’s not easy to ride after the top of the climb, so I think it wasn’t ideal for the breakaway today.”
The elder Schneider wasn’t exceptionally prominent during the 25-lap, 40 kilometre race, but made it count on the final sprint.
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“We just got in on Sunday, we came in from Boise, Idaho, and we did an U.S. National Criterium Calendar crit there, so (we were) just testing out the legs today. We didn’t know how it would feel in the sprint with this course… it was a really fun course,” said Schneider, who is an 11-time U.S. National Champion. “I was here last year at UBC and it’s a little bit different than last year, but very good crowd, very fun race and I’m really happy to be able to get the win today.”
Skylar Schneider, a seven-time U.S. National Champion in her own right, took her sister’s lead in the final lap.
“It was a really hectic last lap,” she said. “I was on my sister’s wheel and she ended up winning. I had a lot of faith in her and followed her lines through the field. Once it came down to about 100 metres out, it was pretty clear who was going to get it.”
On the final sprint to the finish line, the Schneider sisters, who finished 1-2 in the East Tosa Gran Prix series last month, were able to push Olds.
“Shelley is a world-class sprinter, so I stayed behind her up until a couple hundred metres to go and was able to come around her,” Samantha Schneider said. “Shelley’s incredibly fast and deserves congrats on the second place finish.”
Much like she did in Saturday’s Brenco Criterium in the Tour de Delta, Olds was dominant in claiming primes, maybe almost too much so as it looked like she left a little out on the road in the last lap and didn’t have the reserves to push to be first to the finish line, but it didn’t bother the 34-year-old from Gilroy, California.
“I think I just get excited and go for everything. For me, this is all training and it’s really good sprint training, every sprint is different in the primes, so I’m just training my mind and my body how to sprint right now… that’s why I’m going for all the primes,” said Olds, smiling after the race.
This information was complied by staff of BC Superweek.
