WHAT WE SAW, HEARD, AND HOSTED ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
GASTOWN GRAND PRIX 2026. BICI × SPECIALIZED × MAAP
Recap
The Gastown Grand Prix has a particular sound. Carbon on cobbles. A field of 70 women's riders and 100 men's coming through the Cordova hairpin at fifty kilometres an hour, 40-50 times over. Cowbells that don't stop until the sun does. Every summer, one of the best nights in Canadian cycling, and this year, we hosted it from Twisted Fork.
The 53rd edition of the race went off Wednesday, July 8. Bici, Specialized, and MAAP took over Twisted Fork/Breeze Bar for the evening, patio right on the circuit for our VIP crowd, first public look at the new Tarmac SL9, the full MAAP assortment on the rack, and race watch on the screens throughout. Thanks to everyone who came through. That was the room we hoped for.
The race
Marcos Mendez (Foundation Cycling New York) won the men's race — first South American winner in Gastown's fifty-three years. Cade Bickmore (Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) second. Canadian U23 Criterium Champion Jayden McMullen (TaG Racing) third.
The men's race is the one you rebuild afterward. A ten-rider break formed mid-race, Luke Lamperti (EF Education) in it and Tyler Williams (L39ION of LA) turning himself inside out on the primes, nearly two thousand dollars before he sat up. L39ION patrolled the front. The crash at Cordova took down Luke Elphingstone (Project Echelon, 2026 US Pro Crit Champion) and a handful of others. The chase was on before they rejoined; the break was in with under ten laps to go. Mendez did what the strongest rider does on the last two corners.
Skylar Schneider (L39ION of LA) took the women's, her second Gastown title. Bryony Botha (Fearless Femme p/b The Beasley Firm) second, Yarely Salazar (Caldera Medical x Aurea Racing) third. Primes went nearly every other lap from the gun, up to $2,600 across the line, and the pace never dropped. L39ION owned it from mid-way, Samantha Schneider and Holly Breck controlled every move, Skylar delivered the finish. Sidney Swierenga was marked and tried to spring a break anyway. Came down to a sprint on Water Street's cobbles. L39ION territory.
Fifty laps, 58.5 km, 44.9 kph for the men. Forty laps, 46.8 km, 40.3 kph for the women. Cordova was the story on both sides.
Our teams — Bici Squadra, Red Truck Racing, Analog Racing
We back three teams that race the BC calendar hard —Bici Squadra, Analog Racing Team, and Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes. All three were on the start line Wednesday night. Here's how they went.
Bici Squadra
put seven riders in the men's field. Three finished with the front group.
- Al Murison — 16th, same time as Mendez. Same rider who won the men's Grand Prix at Shim's five days earlier. Two big BC race nights back-to-back, top of his form.
- Sam Morris — 20th, same time as Mendez. Third at Shim's; twentieth at Gastown in the front pack. A big week.
- Cameron Fitzmaurice — 31st, seven seconds off the front.
- Cole Glover, Graham Perry, Mac Napier, and Nick Monette all raced hard and didn't get to the line — Gastown is that kind of race. Attrition is baked in. Show up, race, ride again another day.
Bici Squadra also co-hosted the Cadence + Bici Squadra Shakeout Ride from our Adanac store on Tuesday night — the pre-race spin, coffee, and legs-check that put the whole crew on the circuit ready. Thanks to Cadence for the collab.
Analog Racing Team
brought a stacked women's roster and rode the front all night.
- Cynthia Pham — 16th, front group. Cynthia was second at Shim's women's on Sunday. She rode this one from strength — twentieth in a UCI international field.
- Mikayla Lynd — 23rd, front group.
- Charlotte Mitchell — 31st, front group. Three Analog riders finishing on the winner's time is a real showing.
- Ava Hachmann didn't get to the line — that's crit racing.
Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes
raced both fields. Six riders across the start lines, four in the front groups.
- Kolby Mullen — 24th in the men's, front group finish. Second at Shim's men's Grand Prix on Sunday; front pack at Gastown on Wednesday. That's Kolby's summer, pretty much.
- Cooper Langard — 28th, seven seconds off.
- Ethan Pauly — 30th, same second-group finish.
- Owen Harris — 48th after a hard closing lap.
- Kathryn Ayroud — 19th in the women's, front group finish at Skylar's time.
- Larissa Black — 25th in the women's, same front-group time.
- Emma Dressler had a hard night and didn't finish.
The setup — behind the scenes
Twisted Fork / Breeze Bar closed to the public and opened to Bici, Specialized, and MAAP for the evening. That took a village. Wilson, Mikaela, and the venue team ran the door and the flow. Patrick and MAAP built the assortment display — the current Spectrum and Pro Air 3.0 capsules alongside the Team Bib Evo Cargo range, on the rack, in the size run, with the MAAP team on hand to answer fit and fabric questions.
John, Mike, and the Specialized team brought the new Tarmac SL9 to Vancouver for its first public appearance in Canada. Race-day frame in the room, no glass case, hands-on. If you'd been reading the launch email or the blog post from June 30, that was the bike — up close, on the stand, with our crew and Specialized's crew there to answer every question about the Time to Finish story, the Speed Sniffer, the Win Fin, and everything else that went into making it four watts faster than the SL8.
Nic, Cam, Ryan, Jānis, Sahil, and the whole in-store team from all the stores rotated through the venue — greeting, talking bikes, taking photos and videos, keeping the crowd moving. We're proud of our team, and Wednesday night was the version of Bici we're proudest to be.
Full thanks below.
The giveaways — winners announced next week
The S-Works Tarmac SL9 frameset draw ran on the night. So did the MAAP kit draw. We're working through the entries now — every name, every email confirmed, every kit sized against what we've got in stock. If you won, you'll hear from us next week. No inbox spam in the meantime — you'll get one direct email from us with the details, straight from a real person.
If you didn't win, thanks for coming through. The next chance to catch us in a room like this is
Thank you
To Specialized — for building the Tarmac SL9, for trusting us with the first public look in Vancouver, and for showing up in force with the team and the frameset.
To MAAP — for the full assortment, the kits in the draw, and Patrick's whole team for the fit conversations and the fabric geekery.
To Twisted Fork/Breeze Bar — for closing to the public and opening to a race night we won't forget.
To BC Superweek and the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix organisers — for keeping this race alive for fifty-three years. It's still one of the best nights in cycling anywhere.
To the crowd — the people on the patio, the people inside, the people who came for the race and stayed for the room. That's the Bici community, and it showed up.
And to Bici Squadra, Red Truck Racing, and Analog Racing — for racing hard for us all summer and for putting on a show Wednesday. See you at the next start line.
A few other things worth knowing about, if you're just catching up:
Cycling Canada Partnership
Bici is Cycling Canada's first-ever official retail partner.