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37-592: The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is a criterium cycling race held in Gastown , the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver , British Columbia, Canada. Founded by a local dentist and bike racer, Roger Sumner, in 1973, the Gastown Grand Prix regularly attracted professional riders from across the continent along with crowds of 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. Following an eight-year hiatus from 1994 to 2001,

74-423: A Grand Tour . However, the average speed and intensity are appreciably higher. The winner is the first rider to cross the finish line without having been "lapped". Events often have prizes (called primes / p r iː m z / and are usually cash) for winning specific intermediate laps (for instance, every 10th lap). A bell is usually rung to announce to the riders that whoever wins the next lap will be awarded

111-420: A "free-for-all" or a team-focused event. Global Relay Global Relay is a technology services company providing software-as-a-service electronic message archiving (e.g., email archiving ), instant messaging , compliance and supervision services with a focus on highly regulated industries. Global Relay is privately held and employee controlled, with no outside or venture funding . Global Relay

148-655: A five-year, $ 1-million commitment to become the Title Sponsor and Operator of the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix through 2016. The Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix is a professional cycling criterium race in Vancouver, British Columbia . In November 2012, Global Relay introduced Global Relay Bridge the Gap, a philanthropic fund to support up-and-coming Canadian cyclists. Global Relay pledged $ 400,000 over four years to support cyclists between

185-489: A large amount of space, and are good for live spectators as they allow them to see the riders pass by many times. They are the most common type of bicycle racing in the continental United States. They are also gaining popularity as a format for mountain bike events. Belgium's Flanders region hosts a number of criteriums, as does the Netherlands. The most notable of these are held in late July and early August, just after

222-553: A larger race such as the Tour de France. Racing bicycles used for Criteriums often have subtle, but significantly different geometry from those used in other mass-start, multi stage road race events. A Tour bicycle frameset's emphasis is on tracking plus stability while the Criterium-centric geometry strives to achieve stability and balance it with agility. Consequently Criterium racers will often choose bicycles with: In

259-620: A new market emerged for a secure way to retain such messages for business, legal and regulatory purposes. Beginning in 2001, accounting scandals at major US corporations such as Enron, Worldcom and Arthur Andersen brought regulatory compliance issues into sharper focus, not only for financial firms but also for public companies. In the wake of the scandals, regulators such as the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), formerly (NASD), as well as

296-788: A variety of masters categories which can be raced. The Women typically have two separate races, the P/1/2 (3) and the 3/4. Collegiate racing in the USA is sanctioned by USA Cycling (USAC) and consists of four categories: A, B, C, and D. Category A is equivalent to the P-1-2-3 field, category B is equivalent to the Cat 3-4 field, category C is equivalent to Cat 4/5, and D is equivalent to Cat 5. Thus, collegiate criteriums are organized accordingly. The races will also vary depending upon how many people from separate teams enter, which will impact whether it will be

333-550: A women's race which accepts all categories of female riders; however some women's events are only open to higher category riders, whilst some events allow women to compete with category Cat 3+4 men. In the United States, the Men's Field (Pro + Cat 1 + Cat 2, and sometimes Cat 3) generally race together, Cat 3's often have their own races, Cat 4/5 Men often race together, but sometimes have their own races. In addition, there are

370-643: A worldwide exclusive partnership with Thomson Reuters for archiving and compliance of Thomson Reuters Messenger and Eikon. As new message types were adopted in the financial industry, Global Relay developed the ability to capture and retain them for compliance. Public instant messaging ( AOL Instant Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger , MSN Messenger , GoogleTalk ) was the first such message type, followed by Bloomberg messaging, mobile messaging ( BlackBerry and Android SMS , BlackBerry PIN and call logs), ICE Chat, CME/Pivot, and social media ( LinkedIn , Twitter and Facebook ). Each of these integrations, as well as

407-515: Is located in North Vancouver, British Columbia and has a capacity of 200 racks or 5000 servers. It is an environmentally friendly facility that employs evaporative cooling technology to eliminate the need for mechanical air conditioning, thereby dramatically reducing electricity usage. Global Relay is a significant player in the cloud-based messaging and archiving industries. Recent articles cite its client base at over 18,000 including 22 of

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444-505: The Tour de France . However, criteriums in Europe are mostly held in the format of a points race . First, second, and third rider at every 5th lap gets 3, 2, 1 points respectively, with double points for the final sprint. It was a long tradition that after the Tour these criteriums were fixed to have favourable results for local favourites, who may be participating for show after having ridden in

481-431: The 50 lap men's race by only a bike length. In 2009, the race again took another hiatus as it was without sponsorship until 2012, when Global Relay , a Gastown-based technology services firm, made a multi-year commitment to become title sponsor and operator, bringing the race back to Vancouver once again for the 2012 cycling season and beyond. The 2013 race was won by American Ken Hanson and Canadian Leah Kirchmann, both of

518-479: The GP during the 80's by team members Brian Walton, Alex Stieda and Norm Alvis. The 1990s saw some young and relatively inexperienced riders winning the GP over older and more established racers. Many younger riders saw the GP as a great opportunity to compete against more seasoned professional racers. One of these was twenty-year-old John Mckinley, who won the race in 1992. A 19-year-old US racer named Jonas Carney also won

555-404: The GP. Hayman was one of only three Canadian Pros on the world circuit at this time. In 1982 he won again, beating out Steida who came second and Canadian National Team member Bernie Willock who placed third. Eric Heiden, the five time American gold medalist in speed skating, only managed fourth place in this exceptional field. In the 1980s, women cyclists began to establish themselves in the GP with

592-456: The GP. In 1977, racers from the US made their first appearance at the criterium by entering 25 riders in the race. One of these riders was 18-year-old Davis Phinney. Phinney later went on to become an Olympic medalist and winner of two stages of the Tour de France. In 1979, Canadian cyclist Alex Steida made his first appearance at the race as National Junior Track Champion. Steida hit a pedestrian during

629-484: The Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies team. Criterium Race length can be determined by a number of laps or total time, in which case the number of remaining laps is calculated as the race progresses. Generally the event's duration (commonly one hour) is shorter than that of a traditional road race — which can last many hours, sometimes over the course of several days or even weeks, as in

666-479: The Pro team of Coors Light dominated the GP. Sprint specialist Roberto Gaggiolli won with Swedish World Road champion Marianne Berglund victorious in the women's race. Clara Hughes, Leslie Tomlinson and Sara Neil are notable Canadian women racers who rode in the GP in the early 1990s. The GTGP took a nine-year hiatus in 1994 after not being able to secure sponsorship. The event returned in 2002 attracting 28,000 people to

703-451: The UK, Elite and Cat 1+2 riders often race together whilst Cat 3+4 riders race separately; however Elite and Cat 1+2+3 and 4th category only events are also common. Some events known as a handicap races allow Elite and Cat 1+2+3+4 riders to compete in the same race with riders from the different categories being set off at defined intervals starting with the 4th category. Most events contain

740-427: The capacity to process and index the messaging data of companies with hundreds of thousands of users. An additional key component of Global Relay's competitive strategy is the construction of its own data centers, allowing Global Relay to own and fully control all components of its technology stack , including software, workstations, servers, data centers, and property. Global Relay's 4-megawatt west coast data center

777-499: The company's archiving system itself, was built in-house by Global Relay's development teams. Global Relay markets Global Relay Archive both as a compliance necessity and as a tool to boost end-user productivity. Since the company's acquisition of a mobile software firm in 2008, it has released apps for every major mobile platform, including iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android – allowing users to find and retrieve their own archived messages from any location. Global Relay's strategy for

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814-415: The emergence of a Women's category. 1981 National Road Champion Verna Buhler of Canada won the first women's title in 1982. She went on to win two more titles in the next two years. The Pro team of 7-11 dominated GP races in the mid to late 1980s with many podium results. Begun in 1981 as an amateur team, 7-11 become a Pro team in 1985. It raced at many Grand Tours of Europe. First place results were taken at

851-454: The event in 1990. In 1991, another 19-year-old won the race. This was Lance Armstrong, who made his appearance at the GP as an amateur racer. He won the race, dropping his breakaway companion (Matt Eaton, who placed second) on the last lap. Many times a medalist at Olympic and World mountain bike events, Canadian Alison Sydor also rode her first GP in 1991 and won the women's race. Sydor went on to race in many other future GTGP events. In 1993,

888-728: The first of three career victories at the GP. Her other first place wins were to come in 2006 and 2008. Grain used the 2008 race as preparation for the Beijing Olympics, which were going to be held two weeks after the Gastown race. Many other riders also used the GP as final preparation for the Olympics. Sprinter Andrew Pinfold of the Symmetrics team, with the help of his Olympic bound teammate Svein Tuft and seven other teammates, won

925-489: The future centers upon its transition from offering only back office tools (such as message archiving) to also providing front office communication services. Global Relay Message is the company's cloud-based enterprise platform for instant messaging and collaboration, designed to meet the regulatory requirements of the finance industry. Global Relay is also in the process of developing the next generation of its core archiving product, which will provide increased scalability and

962-574: The idea to have a bike race in Gastown, the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver. An accomplished bike racer himself, he wanted to organize a race that was easily accessible to the public to show them how spectacular top level bike racing in Canada could be. Sumner himself competed in the Gastown Grand Prix until 1978. He was later inducted into the BC Hall of Fame for his 30 years of service to the sport in

999-542: The mid-2000s include the appearance of the UCI Continental Symmetrics cycling team at the GTGP. The team was composed wholly of Canadian riders like Svein Tuft, Andrew Pinfold and Eric Wohlberg. By 2006, the GTGP was attracting 40,000 spectators and was offering $ 15,000 in prize money. Gord Fraser was a double GTGP winner with victories in 2003 and 2005. Also in 2005, Gina Grain burst onto the scene and won

1036-472: The newly introduced Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, began requiring financial firms to have a system for electronic message recordkeeping and supervision – just the same as with paper records. Global Relay built its customer base by combining technology with compliance, legal and audit/eDiscovery services. The company gained widespread adoption among banks, investment advisors, broker-dealers, hedge funds and private equity firms. In 2007, Global Relay entered into

1073-414: The prime. Success in road criteriums requires a mix of good technical skills — in particular, the ability to corner smoothly while holding the line on the road, as well as rapidly and sharply — and riding safely with a large group on a short circuit and exceptional "sprint" ability to attack other riders and repeatedly accelerate hard from corners. Criteriums are relatively easy to organise, do not require

1110-534: The race but there were no serious injuries. In 1980 Stieda, still a junior, took his first victory in Gastown in front of crowds that numbered in the 20,000s. Steida later became the first North American to earn the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France. The 1980s saw the arrival of the first professional racing category racers at the Grand Prix. Canadian Pro racer Ron Hayman of Vancouver won three titles at

1147-507: The race returned in 2002 as the Tour de Gastown. During that period the race was part of BC Superweek, a series of nine races held over 10 days in July in the greater Vancouver area. Gastown ran until 2008 before once again stopping due to lack of sponsorship. On January 27, 2012, Global Relay , a Gastown-based technology services firm announced that it would be Title Sponsor and Operator of the race for five years through 2016. The 29th edition of

Gastown Grand Prix - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-473: The race took place on July 11, 2012. It featured the largest winning prizes of any criterium in North America, with $ 40,000 in total prizes, including $ 15,000 to the top finishing male rider and $ 8,000 to the top female. 2013's race marked the 40th anniversary since the first race in 1973, and featured an increased total prize purse of $ 50,000. In 1973, a Vancouver dentist, Dr. Roger Sumner, came up with

1221-433: The race. Thirty-five-year-old Gord Fraser was victorious in the men's event coming first out of 137 other riders. US track team member for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jonas Carney of US came back to the GTGP in 2004 and won the race for a second time. He first won the GP fourteen years earlier in 1990 as a 19-year-old. Manon Jutras, 1994 Canadian Olympic road team member was victorious in the women's event. Other highlights of

1258-555: The roles of racer, coach, manager and racing organizer. He died in 2000 after being hit by a car while riding his bike. The first Gastown Grand Prix was held in 1973. The race ended with Bill Wild, a sprinter, versus New Zealander and three-time Canadian National Road Champion Max Grace on the final lap. Wild won the race and took home a colour TV as first prize. In the 1970s, winners of the Gastown Grand Prix included Bill Wild, Max Grace, Brian Keast, and David Watkins. By 1976, 122 elite cyclists from Canada and Mexico were signed up to race

1295-483: The streets of Gastown. With $ 10,000 up for prize money, Mark McCormack of the Saturn Pro team won ahead of Canadian Olympian Svein Tuft. The Saturn Team was one of the top three Pro US teams at this time and its racers dominated the race. Kim Davidge, also riding for Saturn, won the women's race. In 2003, Germany’s Ina Teutenberg, one of the premier woman sprinters in the world at this time, held off Alison Sydor to win

1332-529: The world's 25 biggest banks and 61% of all US hedge funds.1,2 Revenue growth over the last five years has been rapid: Global Relay was ranked as the 197th fastest-growing software company in North America for 2012. As data security is paramount to Global Relay's financial customer base, the company annually engages KPMG to provide independent verification of the security and reliability of its internal controls. In January 2012, Global Relay announced

1369-600: Was founded in 1999 by Warren Roy, Duff Reid and Eric Parusel. The company developed one of the first cloud email archiving services for use as a records management tool in the architecture, design and construction industries. Several years later, the company realized that it had "the perfect technology for the wrong industry." The company then shifted its focus to the financial sector and began selling its archiving services to broker-dealers, investment advisors, hedge funds and banks. As email and other electronic messages increasingly became standard methods of business communication,

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