Red Truck Women Take on UCI 1.1 Tour de Gatineau

The women's team concluded their season with the UCI 1.1 Tour de Gatineau in Ottawa, Ontario. Joined by two guest riders, Evelyn Gagnon and Jenna Nestman, who shared their experience at the race and with Red Truck Racing.

Evelyn Gagnon

Last weekend I had the opportunity to race Tour de Gatineau. Last time I did that race was in 2017, I got dropped on the circuit after laps in the park and managed to finish inside the time limit. This year, 8 months after giving birth, I had a different approach for that race. I wanted to have fun (if that’s possible when your heart rate is 190bpm) and be proud of myself. I was nervous at the start but happy at the same time. Race started and it was super hard to get to the front. After 2 laps I thought if I can do half of the race I will be happy. Then the half way point arrived and I was still « comfortable » so I thought maybe I could actually finish it in the front group!! That’s what happened and I was very proud of myself! After the race, Sarah, DS extraordinaire was there to congratulate us with her positive energy!

The next day was the crit, something I love and hate at the same time! The day started wonderfully with a coffee in Chelsea with the team and some riding in the beautiful Gatineau park. The crit started and it was a fast race from the gun. I was super pleased to see 2 teammates in the group who weren’t able to make the selection the day before, what a way to finish the weekend strong!!

After a big crash 15min from the end, my confidence wasn’t there anymore and I got drop with 2 laps to go. I’m still proud because it was one of the fastest crit I’ve done in my life.!

This weekend reminded me why I love racing and why I love being in a team of badass women!

Really enjoyed my few days in Red and already excited to meet again with these ladies next year in a race !

Jenna Nestman

Tour De Gatineau, The only two women’s UCI race’s left in Canada! Emma Dressler, Cynthia Pham and Myself (Guest Rider and Alumni - Jenna Nestman), started day one off with the race of TRUTH, the Tour De Gatineau Individual Time Trial UCI 1.1. The 10km loop was unrelenting, with very technical corners, 7 speed bumps, rough payment, a kicker’ of a hill, that was all completed twice for an overall distance of 20 km's. I was very pleased with how I executed my race, keeping the first half in check, really nailing the third quarter of the race and bringing it home with a strong finish. An absolute win for me was railing corners like never before, truly living on the razors edge and finding every second of valuable speed available. Stopping the clock with a time good enough for 6th, in a World class field, chalked full of Olmpians, TDF riders and World tour Pros alike.

Next up was the Tour De Gatineau RR UCI 1.1, run on the same course as the Time Trial, however this time 12 laps, for a total of 120 km’s! With a blistering pace set from the gun it made for a very hard race. Attack, after attack, after attack, shelling riders through the very technical sections and every single hill climb. The field started with over 100 women, just 62 riders finished and only 45 women were in the reduced lead group. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, where I placed 20th as the top finisher for our Red Truck squad.

tt was an unforgettable weekend and having the support of Sarah Coney as our DS for the weekend was absolutely amazing, she made it so easy on us. Being able to race in Red again alongside these strong women was such a gift, the community feel on this team is truly, truly unmatched.

Red Truck Racing wins the 2024 RBC Gran Fondo

Women's Race

This year's RBC Granfondo was a fun and fast day of racing. The race started off aggressively, with a fast pace up Taylor Way. Good positioning allowed me to reach the front group. I was able to stick with the group through to Squamish. In Squamish, the race started to get more dynamic with breaks going up the road. My legs felt strong and I was able to be in the first chase group going into Whistler. I was very happy to take first place in the individual women's field and even more happy to stand on the top step as a team, winning the St. Regis Cup! The team fought hard on all the way from Vancouver to Whistler, ending the season on a great note!

Men's Race

The men’s team had a great time finishing off the season with the world-famous Whistler Grand Fondo. It was a hard, but well fought race by the men who ended up just falling short of their goal of a team podium finish. However, they gave it their all on legs tired from a long, hard season, as they climbed up the scenic sea-to-sky highway, although they didn’t have many opportunities to take in the scenery in the heat of the race. The race was a constant battle of covering attacks and trying to shutdown threatening breakaways. Red Truck alum Alexander Fraser-Maraun broke away with another strong rider near the end of the race and were able to stay away. Cooper Langard made a strong solo effort in the last few kilometres to take third place and Celeb Ney took 10 th place from the bunch sprint with the rest of the team not far behind. Untimely, the team all finished in great spirits in Whistler, happy to conclude their successful season.

Red Truck Racing Announces New Leadership After 25 Years of Success Under Steve Engh and Brian Green

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 12th, 2024 – Vancouver, B.C. – After a remarkable 25-year tenure guiding the Red Truck Racing cycling team, Steve Engh and Brian Green are transitioning leadership to a new group of dedicated athletes and professionals. Sarah Clarke will also be ending her time with the team after many years of behind the scenes work. This exciting change marks a new chapter for the team, with Steve Engh committed to assisting through this transition period.

“This team has been my passion for over 25 years. I'm very pleased that a very dedicated group and team alumni riders have stepped up to carry it on. I will give them as much support as they need.” - Steve Engh

This departure marks the end of an era and we thank Steve Engh, Brian Green, and Sarah Clarke for their unparalleled contributions and look forward to this exciting new chapter for Red Truck Racing.

Introducing the New Leadership Team:

Brenna Pauly

A valued member of Red Truck Racing for over five years, Brenna Pauly has been and will continue to be an integral part of the team’s leadership.

Sian Barraclough

Sian Barraclough brings a wealth of experience from her extensive career in the corporate world, including significant roles in project management and financial strategy, along with experience in cycling as an athlete, race organizer and team manager.

Henry Dressler

Henry Dressler’s background in forensic accounting and financial investigations, combined with his extensive experience in competitive cycling, positions him as the ideal candidate for managing the team's finances and budgeting.

Kolby Mullen

Kolby Mullen, who raced for Red Truck in 2024, will take on the role of Men’s Team Captain. With experience leading the UBC Cycling team and a strong passion for the sport, Kolby is dedicated to maintaining the team's high standards and excellent culture.

Emma Dressler

Emma Dressler, who has managed the team’s social media and website with dedication, will continue to manage Red Truck Racing’s online presence and community engagement, ensuring the team remains connected and visible.

Our Mission:

Red Truck Racing’s core mission remains unchanged: to nurture local cyclists, especially student-athletes, to become their best selves both on and off the bike.The new leadership team is dedicated to preserving Red Truck Racing’s legacy and advancing its impact on the local and national cycling scenes.

For more information or media inquiries, please contact:

Emma Dressler

E-mail: edressler4@gmail.com

Phone: +1 (613) 816-4176

Red Truck Racing

Cycling Team

Vancouver, B.C.

Website: redtruckracing.squarespace.com

Two Podiums at Tour de Concord

Tour de Concord is always a challenging race, feared by many as the most technical course of any local criterium. As an added challenge, this year’s race took place in the blazing sun during an official heat warning. The Men’s lineup consisted of Aidan, Kolby, Matthew, Caleb, Casey, and Oliver, who all tried their best to stay cool before the race. As the race kicked off, everyone tried to stay near the front as Ribble Rebellion’s five-man squad drilled the pace on the front. Everyone knew the accordion effect would result in a full-gas sprint out of the hairpin every lap if not in the top 10 wheels. Halfway through the race, the heat became unbearable for most of the Red Truck squad, with everyone except Kolby and Aidan pulling out. Two or three Ribble riders had also crashed or pulled out due to the heat. In the second half of the race, splits were happening left and right which we expertly closed down. With only 10-15 riders remaining in the race, Ribble kept it fast hoping to keep Al close to the front to sprint for the win. Coming into the last lap, Kolby was slightly out of position, sitting in around 7th wheel. As the riders came back into sight for the finish, the front runners were all gone, leaving two riders on the front with a gap, and Kolby leading the pack in third. It turned out that the leaders had overcooked the hairpin, bringing down the top four riders. Kolby managed to ride through the carnage into great position, bringing home the sprint for third place. Aidan finished just behind in fifth. Considering the conditions and course, this was a brutal race and we were happy to walk away with a podium. The team is feeling primed and ready to take on Gastown next week!

The women’s team lined up for Vancouver’s fourth annual Tour de Concord. The course consisted of tight, technical cornering and fast straight aways, in 25 degree plus temperatures. The team kept their presence in the front of the group, pushing the pace through the corners. Brenna and Emma fought hard in the heat and finished the race together, while Cynthia, Larissa, and Kathryn stuck with the group and finished the race with a sprint placing 8th, 6th and 2nd!

Red Truck Racing Goes East for Road Nationals

In Red Truck Racing's 30th year as a team, Road National Championships took place in Beauce, Quebec. The team competed in the Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium.

Time Trial

The 2024 National Championship course was a tough course with lots of hills. Despite that and shaking out some travel legs, the team performed impressively, achieving the following results:

7th Elite Men - Cooper Langard 9th Elite Men - Aidan Oliphant 17th U23 Women - Kathryn Ayroud 17th U23 Men - Mathew Ney 20th U23 Men - Caleb Ney

Road Race

The challenging weather conditions for the 2024 Canadian Road Nationals women's road race made for a tough and technical race. The women’s team embraced the 115km course consisting of significant climbing and fast descents. Emma, Cynthia, Kathryn, and Larissa had a strong start to the race all sitting comfortably in the peloton for the first 40km. Cynthia and Larissa were able to fight hard to make the chase group to finish 12th and 17th in the Elite Women’s field. Emma finished an impressive 27th in the Elite Women’s field despite getting a flat tire. Kathryn also experienced mechanical issues but still finished with an impressive 15th place in the U23 Women’s field.

The men's Canadian National Road Championships were set to play out on one of the hardest parcours in North America featuring 3400m of climbing over the rolling 200km course with all of the biggest names in Canadian cycling here to play. The peloton fractured immediately once the flag dropped as every rider fought tooth and nail over each punchy climb just to make the group with Caleb, Matthew, and Aidan making the very reduced “main” group with 15 riders up the road. Aidan tried multiple times to escape but was frustrated to be marked out; however, in a wiley move, Caleb snuck away and went on to catch those dropped from the breakaway to finish 12th u23. After making one last-ditch effort to break away, Aidan and Matthew rolled in with the bunch sprint for 21st elite and 26th u23 respectively. Despite finishing outside the time limit, hats off to Cooper and Kolby for both finishing their first National Champs road race on the hardest parkour of the year.

Criterium

The 2024 criterium course was far from your typical crit. With a large and decisive climb, the race shattered within a few laps. But the challenging nature of this course suited our team well. Larissa Black was our top female finisher coming in 7th place.

The 2024 road nationals crit started in some rainy weather on monday with 6 Red Truck riders lined up on the start. The course consisted of a short lap with a one minute hill raced for 60 minutes. It started off very hard and fast with lots of crashes on the first lap. Unfortunately this included Remy who fractured his collarbone but is now recovering well. The rest of the team managed to stay upright in some sketchy conditions. The pace didn’t let up all race and attacks went up the climb on almost every lap. The team raced aggressively for in the opening stages of they race but eventually tired legs caught up to them all and as the race continued to accelerate up the climb all of the riders were eventually distanced and pulled from the race. The team did well to fight it out but in such a hilly crit it became a race of attrition with only 17 finishers from a large field. All in all a somewhat disappointing way for the men’s team to end a good weekend but the boys left it all out there on a brutal course to finish off the nationals campaign for 2024.

RTR Takes 4 Provincial Titles at B.C. Championships

Road Race

The women’s team brought their squad of 5 (Brenna, Emma, Kathryn, Larissa and Cynthia) to take on the BC Provincial Road Championships. The race had 7 laps of a 16 km loop down in South Langley where the team worked together to launch attack after attack from the very first lap to make for a fun race on a flat road with a strong field. First we had our captain, Brenna, with a textbook attack taking her on a solo breakaway. When this came back, we countered immediately with Emma and Kathryn riding strong leading the front and finally sending off Larissa, riding an impressive 2 laps on her own. The final bit let Cynthia get away but to be caught with a lap to go for a field sprint finish where Cynthia snuck through and took the Provincial Road Championship title and Kathryn took the U23 third place! The elite women’s team had a great race together and are excited to improve more upon their team tactics into the Canada Road Nationals coming up in June.

For the junior women’s team, Holly Davies raced 60 km in the rainy, cold morning and won the U17 Provincial title!

The men's race saw a breakaway go not too soon after the start with Oliver Dowd representing Red Truck, unfortunately Oliver was unable to stick with the breakaway through a mishap. Once Oliver rejoined the main peloton it was a team effort to bring back the remaining riders still up the road and largely the sole responsibility of Team Red Truck. Thanks to the hard work of Kolby Mullen, Casey Hill, Remy Garrison, Josiah Ney, Oliver, and Cooper Langard the team was successfully able to pull back the Red-Truck-less breakaway while also leaving Aiden Oliphant, Matthew Ney, and Caleb Ney relatively fresh to go for the win in the decisive latter portion of the race. Rather unexpectedly in the last 30-odd kilometers of the race Mattew, the team sprinter, and Cooper found themselves in a promising breakaway and were in high hopes of making it to the finish from the selection to set Matt up for the winning sprint. However, the breakaway was caught by the peloton with nearly 2km to go and the race turned into a field sprint for the line with Matt unfortunately crashing out but luckily only sustaining minor injuries. Caleb skillfully navigated his way through the chaos of the field giving one last strong sprint to snag a 3rd place finish in the U23 classification.

Sunday Time Trial

The men's team performed exceptionally well in the time trial despite very rainy conditions. Caleb Ney took 2nd place and Mattew Ney 4th in the Mens U23 classification. Cooper Langard was able to secure the win and Aidan Oliphant came in with a 5th place finish for the elite category. Unfortunately, Josiah Ney lost his chance to get a good result sliding out in one of the slick wet corners but was luckily left with only some mild road rash.

The time trial was wet and slippery but the women’s held it down and found their speed on the 37 km course. They ended the BC Championships weekend off strong with all three riders finishing on the TT podium - Kathryn 3rd U23, Emma 3rd Elite and Cynthia a double provincial win for the women’s team.

Closing out the Spring with Tour de Bloom

Stage 1: Ed Farrel Memorial Joe Miller Road Race

The women’s Tour de Bloom started with the Ed Farrel memorial Joe Miller Road Race. The race began with 4 laps of a shorter loop and finished with 1.3 laps of a longer loop which consisted of a 5 mile climb. The team stayed consistently in the front for the 4 laps of the shorter loop which allowed for two riders (Cynthia and Larissa) to get into the front chase group for the last 1.3 shorter loops. Brenna, Emma, and Kathryn raced to an impressive 27th, 33th, 34th respectively!

The men completed 4 smaller laps and then 3 times up a large climb gaining 500m elevation each lap. After a fast and furious start in which Matthew Ney managed to claim the first sprint points, Kolby Mullen powered himself into the breakaway. When the climbing started to get intense our boys were up near the front with Aidan Oliphant and Cooper Langard the first two red truckers across the line in 12th and 24th respectively.

Stage 2: Waterville Road Race

Strong crosswinds during Stage 2 of Tour de Bloom (The Waterville Road Race) made for challenging race conditions. The team fought the winds in the peloton and finished in a bunch sprint securing 17 (Brenna) 18 (Emma) 19 (Larissa) and 20 (Cynthia).

Longer day at Tour de Bloom stage 2 today with the boys tackling a 140km course with rolling hills and crosswinds. It was a viciously fast day out with an average speed of almost 43kph. Our men’s team was very active at the front of the race with Matthew taking the first intermediate sprint after some of impressive teamwork. The team committed to a lot of moves with Caleb and Matthew even getting 35 seconds up on the peloton at one point but ultimately missed the decisive move. The team rolled across the line with 3 riders in the top 30 and ready to race again tomorrow.

Stage 3: Pallisades Time Trial

Day 3 of Tour de Bloom started with a wet and windy Stage 3 Palisades TT. Cynthia earned a top ten finish while Larissa, Brenna, and Emma placed 20th, 21st, and 22nd respectively.

Remy was our first men's rider to start and he and the rest of the squad put down solid performances in difficult conditions. The race ended with 4 Red Truck riders inside the top 22 finishers, Aidan and Cooper 15th and 18th respecitvely, and some super strong riding from the team members racing on their road bikes.

Stage 4: Criterium

The team then raced stage 4 (Twilight Criterium) in downtown Wenatchee with Cynthia leading the team to a 15th place and Larissa, Brenna, and Emma not far behind placing 20th, 21st and 25th.

Day 3 finished with the night crit around downtown Wenatchee. With a race start at 9pm it was almost entirely raced in the dark on wet roads to make for very challenging conditions. The team put down some solid performances and picked up some sprint points. Despite some big attacks the field stayed together for a bunch sprint with Matthew and Caleb both finishing within the top 15 and the rest of the team sprinting through in the main group to round out another good day for the team.

Stage 5: Plain Road Race

The team finished off tour de bloom with stage 5, the Plain road race. The race consisted of two laps around the lake and a steep hill climb to the finish. The girls fought hard to the end which concluded the 4 days of racing!

Day 4 was a rolling 120km with a steep five minute climb to the finish line. Caleb and Matthew attacked as soon as the neutral zone ended and established a four man breakaway. The team members in the main group worked hard to ensure the break stayed away. With one 40km lap to go they had just over 90 seconds on the main group but with just 5km to go the breakaway was caught by the highly motivated peloton. When we arrived at the climb the pack splintered with Adian riding up in the front group to finish 16th. The rest of the team put in a good effort to finsh off a super solid 4 days f racing