Bike Races for Italian Week

Bike races mark end of Italian Week

By KENNETH JACKSON

Metro Ottawa

 

A cycling race yesterday

capped 11-days of themed

events to mark the misnamed

Italian Week in Ottawa.

 

“It’s been a great week.

Besides a little bit of rain on

Friday, our attendance numbers

should be high again,”

said Raffaela Plastino, president

of Italian Week.

 

The big events on the closing-

day docket were Youth

Relay and Italian Festival

Grand Prix bicycle races,

which closed down several

streets in Ottawa’s Little

Italy.

 

The grand prix saw 104

riders vying in a 100-kilometre

event. First prize went to

Darko Ficko, followed by

Charly Vives in second and

Yann DeVille in third.

 

“This is one of the best

races I enter every year. The

energy from the crowd is unreal,”

said Ficko, who captured

$450 in prize money

and his weight in beer —

which turned out to be six

cases of Stella Artois.

 

“There were people coming

out of their homes to

watch the race,” he said.

“One house had a 50-foot

banner with my name on it.

I have never met those people

before in my life. It’s incredible,”

he said.

 

In the youth race, a team

of four dubbed the Grandmas

won the race and 60

kilograms of ice cream.

 

“That’s a lot of ice cream,”

said team member Maddie

Martin. “We are going to

have an ice cream house

party and everyone is invited.”

 

Braeden Elliot crossed the

finish line for The Grandmas

and said the two-kilometre

route was harder than he

first imagined.

 

“My legs were burning. It

was basically a two-kilometre

sprint on a bike,” Elliot

said. “We don’t bike that

much either.”

 

Peter Tyler, one of the organizers

of Italian Week,

said the races always draw a

crowd. “People like gathering

along the street and have a

beer at one of the local pubs.