Boivin wins Canadian road race title
Optum go one-two with Boivin and Ryan Anderson
On Saturday, Guillaume Boivin finally gave Optum Pro Cycling the win it has been looking for at the Canadian National Road Championships, when he took the Elite Men's road title after a fierce battle. Boivin's teammate Ryan Anderson was second, and Ryan Roth (Silber Pro Racing) third. Ben Perry (Silber Pro Racing) won the Under 23 title after finishing fifth overall.
Held on the same course as Stage 1 of the Tour de Beauce two weeks earlier, the 186 kilometre race took riders north of Saint-Georges, Quebec, for 32.5 kilometres, to a 15 kilometre circuit, which the riders completed eight times before heading back to Saint-Georges for the finish. The rolling terrain and gusting wind left little chance for recovery, and the race finished with a steep 200 metre climb to the finish line.
The 123 rider field was dominated by three Continental level squads - Optum with 5 riders, Silber with 8 and Smartstop with 3. Also in the mix were European-based pros Hugo Houle (AG2R la Mondiale), Antoine Duchesne (Europcar), Christian Meier (Orica GreenEDGE) and Dominique Rollin (Cofidis), the latter out early, suffering from breathing problems due to a lung infection.
The real battle was expected to be between Optum and Silber, and that was the way it unfolded. Attacks began in the first kilometre, with a break of four established in the first ten kilometres, containing Mike Woods (Optum), Kris Dahl (Smartstop), Adam de Vos (H&R Block) and Derrick St John (Silber). de Vos was the only Under 23 rider in the group.
The four riders took the gap to nearly two minutes, but Meier, Duchesne and Houle took turns setting tempo to bring it back to under a minute. Four riders then bridged across on the third lap - Houle, Rob Britton (Smartstop), U23-aged Alex Cataford (Silber) and Will Routley (Optum).
This gave the three big teams two riders each up front and the gap began to grow quickly, up to four minutes by the eighth and final lap of the circuit. It appeared that the race was down to the front group, and then St John attacked off the front, joined by Routley.
The pair went over a minute up as the race exited the circuit, with Houle and de Vos the only two willing to chase. It looked like the race would come down to Silber versus Optum, but communication problems with race radio meant that no one up front knew that a group of eight was driving across the gap.
Meier made a massive effort on the route back to town, leading a group containing Duchesne, Boivin, Perry, Anderson, Roth, Zach Bell (Smartstop) and U23 aged Travis Samuel (H&R Block). This group caught the chasers with about five kilometres to go and the two leaders with less then two kilometres remaining.
Boivin and Anderson timed their move to the front perfectly, hitting it just before the final right hander into the climb to the line.
"To be honest, after 100K, I thought the race was over for me," explained Boivin. "But Randy [Ryan Anderson] and I kept following moves and Christian, Antoine and Zach drove the last 20K really hard, and Ryan and I could benefit from our team mates up the road."
"I couldn't believe it all came back together in the last 5K, and from there I knew I had no choice but to win the bike race. I wanted to make sure I was in the top two for the final corner; I punched it a 100 metres before the corner and ended up turning first with Randy on my wheel, and put my head down. With 75 metres to go I was sure that I was going to take it."
"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Boivin, who had family and friends on hand to watch his victory. "I have to thank the team, we had the race under control all day. I can't thank the guys enough and I think we rode a perfect race."
Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Guillaume Boivin (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | 4:34:00 |
2 | Ryan Anderson (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | Row 1 - Cell 2 |
3 | Ryan Roth (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 2 - Cell 2 |
4 | Zachary Bell (Can) Team SmartStop | Row 3 - Cell 2 |
5 | Benjamin Perry (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 4 - Cell 2 |
6 | Adam De Vos (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 5 - Cell 2 |
7 | Alexander Cataford (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 6 - Cell 2 |
8 | Michael Woods (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | Row 7 - Cell 2 |
9 | Christian Meier (Can) Orica GreenEdge | 0:00:04 |
10 | Hugo Houle (Can) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:00:06 |
11 | Antoine Duchesne (Can) Team Europcar | Row 10 - Cell 2 |
12 | Derrick St John (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 11 - Cell 2 |
13 | Will Routley (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | 0:00:28 |
14 | Rob Britton (Can) Team SmartStop | Row 13 - Cell 2 |
15 | Travis Samuel (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | 0:01:17 |
16 | James Gene Piccoli (Can) | 0:04:31 |
17 | Emile Jean (Can) | 0:04:56 |
18 | Simon-Pierre Gauthier (Can) Garneau Quebecor | Row 17 - Cell 2 |
19 | Matteo Dal-Cin (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 18 - Cell 2 |
20 | David Drouin (Can) | Row 19 - Cell 2 |
21 | Frédéric Cossette (Can) | Row 20 - Cell 2 |
22 | Olivier Brisebois (Can) Garneau Quebecor | Row 21 - Cell 2 |
23 | Evan Bayer (Can) | 0:05:00 |
24 | Jack Burke (Can) | Row 23 - Cell 2 |
25 | Robert Gutgesell (Can) | Row 24 - Cell 2 |
26 | Bruce Bird (Can) | Row 25 - Cell 2 |
27 | Anton Varabei (Can) Garneau Quebecor | 0:05:02 |
28 | Nigel Ellsay (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 27 - Cell 2 |
29 | Pierrick Naud (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | Row 28 - Cell 2 |
30 | William Elliott (Can) | 0:05:06 |
31 | Kris Dahl (Can) Team SmartStop | 0:05:08 |
32 | Jordan Cheyne (Can) | Row 31 - Cell 2 |
33 | Kyle Boorsma (Can) | 0:05:10 |
34 | Michael Le Rossignol (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | 0:08:41 |
35 | Danick Vandale (Can) | Row 34 - Cell 2 |
36 | Martin Rupes (Can) | 0:12:29 |
37 | Osmond Bakker (Can) | 0:12:38 |
38 | Derek Snider (Can) | Row 37 - Cell 2 |
39 | Kevin Massicotte (Can) | 0:16:28 |
40 | Jean-François Girard (Can) | 0:17:28 |
41 | Pascal Bussieres (Can) | 0:17:32 |
42 | Brandon Etzl (Can) | 0:20:13 |
43 | Felix Coté Bouvette (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 42 - Cell 2 |
44 | Hendrik Pineda (Can) | Row 43 - Cell 2 |
45 | Justin Purificati (Can) | Row 44 - Cell 2 |
46 | Cameron Mcphaden (Can) | Row 45 - Cell 2 |
47 | Nicolas Masbourian (Can) Silber Pro Cycling | Row 46 - Cell 2 |
OTL | Larbi Benhabib (Can) | 0:24:37 |
OTL | Etienne Moreau (Can) | 0:30:57 |
OTL | William Blackburn (Can) | 0:30:59 |
DNF | Cody Canning (Can) | Row 50 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Dylan Cunningham (Can) | Row 51 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Jordan Landolt (Can) | Row 52 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Normand Richard (Can) | Row 53 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Dominique Rollin (Can) Cofidis, Solutions Credits | Row 54 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Benoit Boulay (Can) | Row 55 - Cell 2 |
DNF | John Parrott (Can) | Row 56 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Jean-François Racine (Can) | Row 57 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Bruno Langlois (Can) Garneau Quebecor | Row 58 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Christopher Rowley (Can) | Row 59 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Kevin Lynch (Can) | Row 60 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Braydon Bourne (Can) | Row 61 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Jean-Michel Lachance (Can) Team Lvshan Landscape | Row 62 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Mark Brouwer (Can) | Row 63 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Charles Gorman (Can) | Row 64 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Andrew Lees (Can) | Row 65 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Sébastien Rousseau (Can) | Row 66 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Benoit Bouchard-Ouellet (Can) | Row 67 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Guillaume Lafleur (Can) | Row 68 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Marc Antoine Noel (Can) | Row 69 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Timothy Burton (Can) | Row 70 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Conor O'brien (Can) | Row 71 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Casey Roth (Can) | Row 72 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Robert Hargrove (Can) | Row 73 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Ben Andrew (Can) | Row 74 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Shaun Clarke (Can) | Row 75 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Bailey Mcknight (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 76 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Jacob Schwingboth (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 77 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Stuart Wight (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 78 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Mitchell Macdonald (Can) | Row 79 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Alexis Cartier (Can) | Row 80 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Stephen Keeping (Can) | Row 81 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Philippe Allard (Can) | Row 82 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Olivier Lavigueur (Can) | Row 83 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Benjamin Martel (Can) | Row 84 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Julien Brazeau-Séguin (Can) | Row 85 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Alex Gibson (Can) | Row 86 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Andrew House (Can) | Row 87 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Matt Surch (Can) | Row 88 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Étienne Samson (Can) | Row 89 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Kevin Archambault (Can) | Row 90 - Cell 2 |
DNF | David Boily (Can) | Row 91 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Étienne Dubuc (Can) | Row 92 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Emmanuel Gagne (Can) Airgas-Safeway Cycling Team | Row 93 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Alexandre Mathieu (Can) | Row 94 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Devon Moonie (Can) | Row 95 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Victor Bourassa (Can) | Row 96 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Navarro Fong Roy (Can) | Row 97 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Marc-Antoine Soucy (Can) Garneau Quebecor | Row 98 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Christopher Prendergast (Can) | Row 99 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Luke Van Lauwe (Can) | Row 100 - Cell 2 |
DNF | William Dal Prà (Ita) | Row 101 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Simon Fothergill (Can) | Row 102 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Eric Johnston (Can) | Row 103 - Cell 2 |
DNF | James Orton (Can) | Row 104 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Aaron Thomas (Can) | Row 105 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Tommy Waldeck (Can) | Row 106 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Antoine Pelletier Houle (Can) | Row 107 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Antoine Breton (Can) | Row 108 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Alex Lessard (Can) | Row 109 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Alexandre Simard (Can) | Row 110 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Edward Walsh (Can) | Row 111 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Trevor O'donnell (Can) | Row 112 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Olivier Péloquin (Can) | Row 113 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Peter Disera (Can) H&R Block Pro Cycling | Row 114 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Reid Mcclure (Can) | Row 115 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Joshua Kropf (Can) | Row 116 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Samuel Périgny (Can) | Row 117 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Trevor Stothard (Can) | Row 118 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Tyler D'arcy (Can) | Row 119 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Nicolas Ducharme (Can) | Row 120 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Christian Ricci (Can) | Row 121 - Cell 2 |
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