Olympic-medallist Gillian Carleton of Victoria made a triumphant return to cycling Sunday, after 2 1/2 years away, to win the women’s Russ Hay’s Grand Prix around the Legislature Buildings.
Carleton, bronze medallist in team pursuit at the 2012 London Olympics, had retired in 2014 to finish her degree in neuroscience at the University of Victoria.
“I began riding again in a few races and it’s going well and I’m enjoying it,” she said.
So much so that the 27-year-old is now thinking off putting off medical school to pursue the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Medical school will always be there.
“But I won’t have these legs forever,” Carleton said.
“This is a big about-face in my life. I feel I have a lot left to give in cycling. This comeback has happened so quickly. I feel I can have a veteran/mentoring role [on the national track cycling team]. I am looking to Tokyo 2020.”
Carleton didn’t seem a factor Sunday, content with riding in the main pack, until a late rally saw her push past the field on the last of 35 laps: “It was a bit of an unknown and I didn’t know if I had a finishing sprint left in me. But once I got the gap, I rolled it out.”
And rolled toward a compelling comeback storyline.
Carleton added her name to past winners of the Grand Prix, which have included fellow Olympic-medallists Brian Walton and Alison Sydor, and other Olympians Roland Green, Andreas Hestler, Erinne Willock and Gina Grain.
The event was held around Bastion Square from 1992 to 2014 with its notorious Crash Corner.
Calgary pro Connor Toppings lapped the men’s field Sunday, riding alone for much of the race, to win the 40-lap male event of the Russ Hay’s Grand Prix.
It is only the fourth time in the 25-year history of the Grand Prix that a winner has lapped the field. Olympian and world champion Green did it twice in the men’s race and Sara Bergen did it last year in winning the women’s race.
“I really put in the time over the winter and it’s paying off now,” said Toppings, now based in Langley with the Savvy+/Garneau team.
“I put my head down and went for it.”
A hockey player earlier in his sports career, Toppings didn’t begin cycling until age 17.
“There’s a lot of cross-over between hockey and cycling,” he said, especially the use of leg power.
There was a collision in the women’s race with a rider taken away in an ambulance with reported concussion-like symptoms. Organizers said she is in stable condition.
