Bike races mark end of Italian Week
By KENNETH JACKSON
Metro
A cycling race yesterday
capped 11-days of themed
events to mark the misnamed
Italian Week in
“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
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
“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.
