October 10/03 10:00 am - Road World Championships: Junior women's RR

Posted by Editoress on 10/10/03
 

This report made possible by Human Kinetics Publishers.



Sorry, we have had some technical difficulties possibly related to a virus that got into the press room.

Junior Women's Road Race: 73.8 km - 6 laps

A crash on lap 2 took a Dutch rider down hard and split the pack. In that crash were also 2 Canadian riders Emily Roy and Ana Tratnyek. Tratnyek recovered and got back up and continued to race, but Roy is out of the race.

The Dutch and Australian riders seem to be the strongest and are leading on the 2nd climb. The one CDN rider who seems to be riding comfortably (sitting down on the climb when many others are standing) is Audrey Lemieux.

Now on lap 3, the peloton is shrinking as riders are getting shed on the climb.

10:10am EDT

The riders are on the first climb on lap 4. Audrey Lemieux was the first rider across the line at the end of lap 3 leading a small group of 3 that had a 3 second gap on the peloton, and continues to ride comfortably in the middle of the peloton, which is now only 33 riders. The 34th rider is 16 seconds down and then it is a steady stream of individual riders who have been dropped. Anna Tratnyek is 44th 1:16 down and Emily Sandwith is 45th at 2:15. Only 50 of 59 starters are remain on the road. Iris Slappendel (ITT medalist) was the Dutch rider to go down on lap and withdraw from the race.

10:35am EDT

At the end of lap 4, the Australians launched and attack, but were chased down by the Ukrainians and the Germans. Monika Furrer (Sui) was the first rider across the line, Bianca Knoeple (Ger) 2nd, Joan Boskamp (Ned) 3rd and Audrey Lemieux was the 4th rider across the line at the start of lap 5

10:40am EDT

Audrey Lemieux (Can) launched an attach on the flats across Fennel street, but was quickly joined by a Belgian rider and a German and then the pack (now only about 25 riders) quickly joined on.

10:48am EDT

On the climb on lap 5, Elisabeth Brandau (GER) and Valentina Gavrilova (RUS) attacked at the base of the climb, and now have a gap of 10 seconds

10:55am EDT

At the start of the last lap., Audrey Lemieux was the 3rd rider across behind the 2 leaders (Brandau and Gavrilova) the gap was just 8 seconds. Brandau and Gavrilova extended the gap to 15 seconds on the first climb (Queen St). The rest of the peloton is strung out behind them. Lemieux drifted back to the back of the group. At the top as they turned onto Fennell the leaders were caught and everyone is back together as they head to the descent.

Audrey Lemieux came off the back on the 2nd climb.

1. Loes Markerink (NED) 2:06:11
2. Irina Tolmacheva (RUS)
3. Sabine Fischer (GER) all s.t.

19. Audrey Lemieux (CAN) at 0:32