The Tour de Delta is divided into three races, two of which, after a change last year, are similar in format:
. The weekend begins on Friday evening with the MK Delta Criterium in North Delta. Replacing the race-against-the-clock prologue and the hill climb, the North Delta crit has been modeled after the popular Brenco Criterium, which is contested each year in Ladner Village.
Organizers were extremely pleased with the inaugural MK Delta Criterium in 2011, which saw Team Spidertech rider Ryan Anderson, a Vancouver native, win a sprint to the finish.
"It had a really exciting finish that couldn't have been better scripted," Tour de Delta race director Mark Ernsting said following last year's race.
Organizers are focusing on making the Friday criterium as good as the one in Ladner.
"Hopefully over the next few years it will grow to that level," said Ernsting. "We're really looking forward to having thousands of people come out - like the Ladner course."
Riders will travel in a pack over the 1.2-kilometre circuit, reaching speeds up to 70 km/h on a downhill section.
They will complete 30 to 40 laps of the course that starts and finishes on 84th Avenue.
. Saturday evening's Brenco Criterium sees riders complete 60 laps of an almost one-kilometre route on the streets of Ladner Village.
It takes roughly one minute for racers to make their way around the course, so there's almost constant action for spectators. Riders can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h during the criterium, making the colourful peleton a blur as it goes by.
A prime, a race within the race for a cash prize, adds to the excitement of the criterium.
There are many great viewing opportunities, including makeshift patios of the restaurants that line the course.
. The weekend concludes on Sunday morning with the marathon-like White Spot Road Race. The men cycle an exhausting 140 kilometres, starting in North Delta, passing through Ladner and ending in Tsawwassen.
They finish by cycling 10 laps of a rectangular circuit bordered by 12th Avenue, 56th Street, 1st Avenue and English Bluff Road.
The women do all their racing in Tsawwassen, making 11 laps of the circuit for a total of 88 kilometres.
The road race offers several good vantage points in Tsawwassen, including the 56th Street hill towards the border, but due to the size of the circuit, the leaders are seen only every 10 minutes or so.
The finish line for the road race is at Winskill Park.
