July 27/97 21:45 pm - Canada Cup #6 XC, Abitibi Final

Posted by Editor on 07/27/97
 

Canada Cup #6, Silver Star, B.C. - Cross Country  (this report by Greg Flaaten)  Neil Grover (Rocky Mountain) and Melanie Dorion (Scott) went 2 for 2 earlier today at Canada Cup #6, repeating their victories of last week in Whistler.  Eric Tourville (Oryx) was first out of Silver Star stadium in the men‚s pro-elite race, but he had Grover and Peter Wedge (Kona) in close pursuit. Grover and wedge overtook Tourville on the first climb of the circuit, a 2 kilometre affair. At the end of the 1st lap Grover had established a 200 metre lead on Wedge, with Tourville still in sight of the front duo. Behind Tourville, a chase group containing Seamus McGrath (Kona) and Bill Hurley (Schwinn) were beginning to apply pressure. After 2 laps Grover had a 1:14 gap on Wedge, while the chasers (now including Tourville) were a further minute down. The finishing order was now set: Grover, Wedge, Tourville, McGrath and Hurley.  Trish Sinclair (Kona), hoping to one better her 2nd place of last weekend took the lead at the beginning of the women‚s race. However, Melanie McQuaid (Rocky Mountain) and Melanie Dorion (Scott) were glued to her wheel. McQuaid made a move on Sinclair as the women hit the first climb, and the three frontrunners opened a sizable gap on the rest of the field. The two Melanie‚s opened a slight lead on Sinclair by the end of the first lap, and began to drop the Kona rider as they battle for dominance through the second lap. Dorion got a slight gap when McQuaid had to contend with lapped riders. By the start of the last lap Dorion had increased her lead to 1:08 over McQuaid, and Sinclair had dropped some 4 minutes off the pace, fighting lower back pain and the Silver Star altitude. By the finish line Dorion had stretched her lead to nearly 2 minutes over McQuaid. Sinclair had taken back some time, finishing 3:18 off the pace, and the top-5 were rounded out by Marie-Helene Premont (Balfa) and Lisa McGilvray (Ontario Team).  All that can be said about the Junior men is that Ryder Hesjedal (Kona) was once again dominant, and this week was sporting an orange hairdo.  Note:   TSN had 6 cameras filming the racing all weekend, and plan to air the footage in October.  It was announced at the event that Silver Star is the site for the 1998 Nationals.  Complete cross-country results will be posted later tonight.   Le Tour de l‚Abitibi, Quebec  Stage 8, La Sarre - Normetal - La Sarre - 73.6 km  1 Joshua Thornton USA 1:39:34 2 Martin Daviault Quebec 3 James Cruskshank Alberta 4 Remy Mathieu (Yves Bourget) 5 Jocelyn Duquette Canada 6 Michael Wieczorek Germany 7 Charles Dionne Canada 8 David Gluzman Canada 9 Nicolas Dubois (Yves Bourget) 10 Dan Rogers Texas  11 Francois Bernatchez Ultra Lait 18 Jean Pinsonnault Quebec all s.t.  Final GC  1 Thornton 10:57:01 2 David Zabriskie USA at 0:40 3 Phil Zajicek USA 0:53 4 Ben Powell NZ 1:04 5 Sebastien Lang Germany 1:06 6 Wieczorek 1:19 7 Bryan Hayes USA 1:32 8 Alistair Howard BC 9 Gluzman 1:46 10 Karl Moore NZ 1:46  12 Denis Boucher Canada 1:56 14 Cruskshank 2:06 15 Trevor Wurtele BC s.t. 17 Christian Viens Canada 2:23 20 Duquette 2:39  Team Final GC  1 USA 33:46:05 2 NZ at 5:25 3 Canada 5:40 4 Germany 5:41 5 B.C. 6:14  Climbers Classification  1 Matthew Yates NZ 10 points 2 David Arato Hungary 5 3 Powell 3 3 Martin St-Laurent Quebec 3 3 Howard 3 6 Sylvain Richard Penta 2 10 Pinsonnault 1  Points  1 Thornton 176 points 2 Zabriskie 56 3 Stephen Steinman (Yves Bourget) 50 4 Brady Gibbons NZ 4 Lang 50 6 Dionne 46 7 Cruskshank 44  Revelation of the Tour - Denis Boucher  Most Gentlemanly - Ben Powell  Most Courageous - Martin Daviault  Best Team Spirit - USA  Most Aggressive - Sebastien Lang