SpiderTech's cycling squad continues to earn its spurs on the European pro circuit as two riders broken into the top five at the Grand Prix Pino Cerami, in Belgium, a race part of the UCI Europe Tour.
Guillaume Boivin of Longueuil, Que., and Ryan Anderson of Vancouver, cranked through the finish side-by-side with a time of 4 hours 52 minutes 11 seconds – the same time as the race winner Gaëtan Bille of Lotto-Belisol, a World Tour team. Boivin was placed fourth, Anderson fifth in the official race standing.
As a sign that the Canadians are getting primed for the big time, Boivin said that fourth is not good enough.
"I'm not happy, no. Fourth is close, but we wanted to get a win," said Boivin, who has raced more than 2,500 kilometres in 17 races this season– the most of all riders in Team SpiderTech. Five times he has been in the top five this season and three times he has been on the podium.
"I'm really happy to have helped Randy [Ryan Anderson]today. We talked and knew there wouldn't be much co-ordination with other teams because of the uphill finish. I told him to just follow me. I would sprint for the win, but if he could come around he should," Boivin said in a statement.
The race ended with a sprint to the finish line. "We had a clear plan and the boys executed really well today. The race more or less happened the way we expected, but there were more riders in the sprint at the end than we expected," said Kevin Field, SpiderTech's sports director. "But it's great to see Randy get in there, and great to see how committed the guys were to helping him. He's the ultimate team-mate, and today was a bit of payback for all the work he normally puts in for his team."
The fifth place is Anderson's his career-best result on the international scene, cracking the Top 10 for the first time with a professional continental team.