July 19/10 12:06 pm - Tour de White Rock: Women Stage 3 and Final Overall

Posted by Editoress on 07/19/10
 

Joelle Numainville wins final stage and takes overall

Photos by Greg Descantes

The women’s race finished with familiar faces on the podium, but the path they took to get there was decidedly different from the men.

Joelle Numainville, who won the Canadian Road Race championship in Edmonton late last month, won a bunch sprint in the 80-kilometre women's race, edging out Leah Kirchmann of Vancouver's Trek Red Truck Pro Cycling and Alberta's Heather Kay of United Cycle.

Numainville, a Montreal native who also won Saturday’s criterium in a sprint, finished in two hours, 35 minutes and seven seconds, with the second and third place both within three-tenths of a second behind.

Numainville was also third in Friday night’s Hillclimb – after posting the fastest time up in the opening heat – and won the omnium, or overall.

All of which had her worried about running out of gas in the sprint.

“I was getting tired,” said Numainville. “I was chasing down a lot of things today and getting tired and I was worried.”

To the surprise of many, the women stayed together, with occasional breakaway attempts always reeled in quickly. Numainville, who was the lone representative of the San Francisco-based Webcor Builders team, was often a part of those chases, making sure none of the local squads with a numbers advantage could get too far ahead. As for getting away by herself at any point, Numainville knew she was being watched closely as the newly crowned national road race champion.

“For sure (there’s a target) and I felt it today, but that’s part of the deal,” she said. “I just race as hard as I can and see how they react.”

Kirchmann, who won the Canadian Criterium championship at the Tour de Delta last weekend, came closest to clipping her at the line, while Kay came from the back of the pack on the last climb to finish third.

For the 35-year-old United Cycle rider from Sherwood Park, Alberta, it was nice to finally make a podium in the historic road race after a handful of top-10 finishes in the past, and third-place in both the Criterium and Hillclimb at last year’s 30th Tour de White Rock.

“I’m thrilled to podium,” said Kay. “Joelle is an amazing sprinter. There was no chance I could get around her, but it was a great finish.”

It was also a great conclusion to the $40,000 BC Superweek.

Press release