July 18/97 19:47 pm - Junior National Road Races, Tour of the Rockies, Oops

Posted by Editor on 07/18/97
 

Today was the road race for the Junior men and women at the Nationals in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Unfortunately, it was very disturbing to see only 45 men and 8 women competing in this, the most important event of the national calendar. With these sort of numbers, how likely is it that we will see more Clara Hughes‚, Linda Jackson‚s, Brian Walton‚s and Steve Bauer‚s in the future. A sobering thought.  Having said that, on to the races!  The women‚s 65 kilometre race results for the podium positions were an exact duplicate of the time trial results: Genevieve Jeanson (Quebec), Erin Carter (Manitoba) and Marie-Claude Lafond (Quebec). Carter and Jeanson sprinted it out for the national jersey, with Lafond rolling in some 23 seconds later. Given the hilly course and the windy conditions, the average speed of 38.56 km/h is quite impressive (only 1.4 km/h less than the men). As a point of interest - Jeason is actually a Cadet, being only 15 years of age. Watch out for her over the next few years.  The men did a 120 kilometre loop under the same windy conditions, with a head wind for the first half of the race. Two Quebec riders, Jocelyn Duquette and Martin Daviault, launched a daring attack from the gun and reached a maximum gap of 1:50 on the complacent field. At the 65 kilometre mark, eventual winner Trevor Wertele of British Columbia jumped off the front of the pack and quickly bridged up to the breakaway duo. 10 kilometres later Daviault was dropped from the breakaway, and it was evident that Wertele was by far the stronger rider. With 25 kilometres to go Chris de Vries (Alberta), Frederik Plantadis (Quebec) and Michel Prud‚homme (Quebec) strirred things up in the pack by attempting to get away. They were unsuccessful, but they did reel in Duquette before the end, after he had done a heroic ride off the front for over 100 kilometres. Wertele easily dropped Duquette (who finished 11th) on the final 8% climb and cruised in 33 seconds ahead of chasers Prud‚homme and Plantadis, with the disintegrating pack straggling in over the course of the next minute. The 18 year old Wertele, who spent a couple of months in Europe this spring was very confident: „I knew that I would make the attack at the (final) hill.‰  Race Notes:  The 5th place finisher, and the winner of the time trial - Denis Boucher of New Brunswick - suffers from cystic fibrosis. He says that cycling actually helps with this debilitating disease that affects the lungs, by keeping them clear and open.  There was surprisingly little action from pre-race favourites, such as David Gluzman (8th, Alberta), and last years champion Brandon Gorman (Ontario, 20th), who stayed in the pack for most of the race.  (Again, we want to thank Mr Pierre Hamel of Velo Mag, and the organizers for their excellent assistance in preparing this report)  Junior Women, 65 km  1 Genevieve Jeanson QC 1:41:08 2 Erin Carter MB s.t. 3 Marie-Claude Lafonde QC at 0:23 4 Annie Hamel QC s.t. 5 Myriam Desrosiers QC 1;05 6 Carine Lachapelle QC 1:12 7 Genevieve Marcotte QC 7:45 8 Emmanuelle Dube QC 11:58  Junior Men, 120 km  1 Trevor Wertele BC 3:00:11 2 Michel Prud‚homme QC at 0:33 3 Frederik Plantadis QC 0:36 4 Joshua Lajeunesse ON 0:40 5 Denis Boucher NB s.t. 6 Charles Dionne QC s.t. 7 Allister Howard BC 0:46 8 David Gluzman AB s.t. 9 Stephen Steinman BC s.t. 10 Chris De Vries AB s.t.  Veteran A Men, 120 km  1 Paul Migner QC 2:59:24 2 John Large QC at 0:05 3 Terence Dahms AB s.t. 4 Gary MacGregor NS 0:12 5 Peter Slade NS s.t. 6 Marc Lapointe QC 0:41 7 Yvan Dion QC s.t. 8 Steven Narasek ON s.t. 9 Marc Chiarelli ON s.t. 10 Craig Doucet ON s.t.  Veteran B Men, 120 km  1 Desi Desrocher ON 3:08:46 2 Yves Sanche QC at 0:04 3 Marian Pyszczek MB 0:09 4 Peter Metuzals QC 0:17 5 Andrew Gage NB s.t. 6 Guy Marcotte QC s.t. 7 Jacques Belzile QC s.t. 8 Pierre Girard QC s.t. 9 Guy Lepine QC s.t. 10 Michel Lacerte QC s.t.  Veteran C Men, 65 km  1 Jorn Hansen ON 1:41:03 2 Robert Hicks ON s.t. 3 John Parkinson ON s.t. 4 Tim Porter ON at 0:05 5 J-Guy Lemire QC s.t. 6 Gary Romkey ON 0:28 7 Philip Carter MB s.t. 8 Peter Penman ON 0:40 9 Michel Gance QC 18:05  Veteran D Men, 65 km  1 Ernst Zweinacker ON 1:41:08 2 Guy Jarry QC s.t. 3 Gaston Langlois at 0:23 4 Murray Dean ON 34:35  Veteran Women, 65 km  1 Helene Houle ON 1:41:55 2 Linda Simonsen ON at 0:25  Criteriums tomorrow and senior road races on Sunday.   Tour of the Rockies, Colorado  Stage 2, Mt Werner Point-to-Point  Men, 30.4 km  1 Jerome Chiotti FRA GT 1:38:00 2 Pavel Tcherkassov RUS Diamondback-Tissot at 0:55 3 Rishi Grewal USA Klein 2:32  5 Roland Green CAN Kona 4:11  GC  1 Chiotti 3;04:39 2 Tcherkassov at 2:30 3 Grewal 4:17  6 Green 8:46  Women, 21.1 km  1 Alison Dunlap USA GT 1:44:34 2 Tammy Jacques USA Schwinn-Toyota at 1:04 3 Ruthie Matthes USA Powerbar 3:01 4 Lesley Tomlinson CAN Kona 4:49  6 Chrissy Redden CAN Ritchey 10:57  GC 1 Jacques 2:48:03 2 Matthes at 1:42 3 Dunlap 3:02 4 Tomlinson 4:49  6 Redden 14:51  Note: Roland Green finished 12th in stage 1   Oops!  An alert reader (Rick Murphy) noticed that we had incorrectly stated that the climb in today‚s 55 km ITT of the Tour de France was Cat 4. In fact, it was Cat 2 - a Œmaterial difference‚ - as Mr Murphy pointed out. Tomorrow, the Tour tackles the legendary Alpe d‚Huez - stay tuned for details.