Old Pueblo Grand Prix: Canadian's first Tucson trip is a winner

The Winnipeg, Manitoba, native, who arrived on Tuesday, rode Mount Lemmon and Gates Pass earlier this week and, on Saturday, spent some time riding downtown. Mount Lemmon was scenic. Saturday's ride was profitable.

Kirchmann, 21, won the second annual Old Pueblo Grand Prix criterium bike race through the streets of downtown Tucson, edging out local rider Erica Allar.

The women's pro race was part of a full day of Grand Prix events Saturday. Twelve events were held in all, including junior races, Masters races and even a 300-yard sprint.

Kirchmann spent her 50-minute race bunched in pack of 23 riders and unlike last year, when Kristin Sanders won the women's race with an 82-second lead, year No. 2 of the event failed to include a single breakaway.

"I tried a few times," admitted Kirchmann, Canada's two-time defending criterium racing champion. "I tried to make it aggressive and I tried to get a breakaway, but it just didn't work out today."

Instead, she waited until the fourth and final corner of the final lap - a right turn from 14th Street onto Stone Avenue - to make her move.

"I was the third wheel coming out of the last corner, and that's perfect," she said. "I didn't want to be the first one out. I just waited until the perfect moment to start my sprint."

Allar, a 26-year-old Tucson resident and winner of last week's USA Crits Championship Series race in Delray Beach, Fla., failed to realize Kirchmann was so close behind her entering the final turn and could only watch the Canadian sprint to the victory.

"This is a hometown race," said Allar, the USA Crits Championship Series 2011 champion. "I would have liked to win, but it was a good, tough race and I can't complain with the podium finish."

The Old Pueblo Grand Prix (OPGP) joined the Crits Championship series this year after running as an independent race in its inaugural year. The consensus among riders was that the OPGP joining a series calendar helped promote more top-tier teams to attend.

"A lot of teams take the USA Crits Series seriously," said men's pro winner Isaac Howe. "It was a big thing for our team because we love this series."

Howe captured the final event of the day when teammate, James Stemper, who led for 40 minutes, ran out of gas on the final 1-kilometer lap.

Stemper had built himself a 25-second lead, but the pack chipped away from there. Stemper still led by 10.8 seconds with three laps to go but was caught by the pack on the final full straightaway of the last lap.

Howe, 26, got the nod from his teammates to take the lead and sailed across for his first crit win.

"This is a team sport," Howe said. "I could not have done this at all without my teammates."

Both Howe, a native of Vermont, and Stemper, 26, who hails from Wisconsin, have spent extensive time in Tucson. Howe is training here currently, and Stemper trained here during the winters of 2010 and 2011.

Each said they believe the OPGP, which altered its course this year from a six-turn technical challenge to a safer, four-turn rectangle, has a long future in Tucson.

"I got to experience the crowd more than anyone else today," said Stemper. "They were super pumped. I was pumped, too."