**Escape Velocity Spring Series**  
**Township of Langley and Abbotsford BC**  
**February 29th through May 10th, 2020**  

### Press Release 1
### Hougen Park Road Race
### 2020-02-29 


After a rather wet winter 2019 has departed and welcomes a (hopefully) warmer 2020 season. 

February 29, welcomes the start of the BC road racing season with the first event of the Escape Velocity BC Spring series. The Hougen Park circuit in
Abbotsford played host for the first BC race of the year. And, while it was not as windy as last year's race, the flat course attracts wind and puts a premium
on echelon skills as well as tactical awareness.

A reminder to participants to stage 10 minutes prior to the start of the race, so that riders can receive course instructions.

### Category: Elite Men 1/2
In the Men's Elite Category 1/2 field the start of a new season saw last years BC Cup series winner, 
*Nigel Kinney* of *Langois Brown Racing* use his exceptional
race IQ, team strength, and obviously race fit legs to outmatch his competitor teams numerical superiority. 
*Patrick Riddell* of *Red Truck Racing* was 6 seconds
behind in second with 
*Eric Inkster* of *TaG Racing* rounding out the top three. 

### Category: Elite Women 1/2
The women's Elite Category 1/2 race saw 
*Helena Broomham* take a convincing solo win for her *Fluvog Crit Nasty* team. 
Broomham finished over a minute and a half ahead of 
*Krista Matthews* of *Glotman Simpson*, with *Mighty Cycling's* *Caroline Kenning* rounding out the top 3. 

### Category: Masters Men 1/2/3
The Masters 1/2/3 open category saw 
*Dean Broomham* of *Langois Brown Racing* set a fierce early pace, launching teammate *Johnathan Wood* up the road halfway
through the opening lap. Crosswinds shredded the field and the leading group went from eight to three within a lap and a half. *Wood* formed the winning
breakaway with *Quinn Anderson* of *Mighty Cycling* and *Matt Usborne*. The trio shared turns in the break until an untimely issue took out 
*Anderson* with 3/4 of a lap remaining. *Usborne* was able to take the two-up sprint from Wood. 

### Category: Masters Women
The masters women's race saw a very dominant performance by race winner *Gowa Kong* of *Glotman Simpson*, with 
*Sandra Schinnerl* of *Escape Velcity* in second place. 

### Category: Cat 3 Men
The Category 3 men's race saw *Michael Wagner* of *Langois Brown Racing* put his European crosswind experience to good use, winning over 
*Damien Parlee* of *Riverway Dental Racing*. *Garrett KRYT* of *Mighty Cycling* finished in a close third. 

### Category: Cat 3 Women
In the Category 3 women's race *Elise Murray* of *Glotman Simpson Cycling* took the win.

### Category: C Group Women
In the  women's C group open/category 4 race, *Annabel Erwin* took the win with a large gap over second place 
*Melanie Lee* of *Glotman Simpson Cycling* and third
place *Jacqueline Holmes* of *Meraloma Bike*. 

### Category: Cat 4 Men
The Category 4 men's race saw the *United Velo Cycling Club* flex its collective muscles with *Brent Mussato* sprinting to the win just in front of 
teammate *Brian Delisser*. *M. Mcbain* rounded out the cat 3 podium. 

### Category: D Group Men
In the D group (Open) *Laurence Hanoman* of Escape Velocity Cycling took the win ahead of *Michael Hustler* and *Matthew Bennett*. 
This gave *Hustler* the win in the combined Masters Open 4/5 group and *Hanoman* the win in the category 5 men's race. 


Full results: https://results.wimsey.co/2020/ss2020/