Clara Hughes (Canada) continued her run of success after returning to cycling with a dominating performance in the Panamerican Championship road race. Following up on her gold medal performance in the time trial on Friday, Hughes earned her second gold medal with a solo victory in the 96km road race. Evelyn Garcia (El Salvador) claimed the silver medal 1:18 later while Theresa Cliff-Ryan (USA) took the field sprint for bronze 6:53 behind Hughes.
Hughes and Garcia formed the race's decisive break and rode away from the peloton on a difficult parcours. Hughes eventually dispatched of Garcia to win alone.
"It was an epic day...We had a plan as a team to win the road race today and I am so proud of this victory for Canada," said Hughes.
"It was hot, hilly and gruelling, and I was cramping up really badly halfway through the race. I ate and drank as much as I could to make the cramps go away and kept thinking 'you can't lose this race for the team!'. It gave me a lot of strength and motivation knowing my teammates were working hard behind.
"It was a team victory and I'm satisfied but exhausted. I've never cramped up in a race and had to go through that kind of pain."
Vincent Jourdain, head coach of the Canadian Road Cycling Team, was effusive about his team's performance. "The strategy was to put pressure immediately and isolate the Americans," said Jourdain. "Clara quickly broke away from the peloton with a girl from El Salvador, and gave an incredible effort throughout the race in front.
"We reached our objective here, securing two additional spot for the World Championships."
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