July 5/08 6:34 am - Road Nationals: Women's Road Race photos, report and full results

Posted by Editoress on 07/5/08
 

Road National Championships - Women's Road Race St Georges QC

Photos

Alex Wrubleski (Webcor) won the second Canadian national road title of her career on Saturday when she out sprinted Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) and Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) after 114 kilometres of racing. Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) took the Under-23 title after finishing seventh in the lead group.

A nontechnical 28.5 kilometre course with no major climbs meant that the only way to reduce the number of contenders was through attacks, and time trial champion Anne Samplonius (Quebec) did just that on the second of four laps with a hard attack along a crosswind section.

When the dust had all settled by the end of the lap there were 12 riders at the front. A group tried to chase up for a lap, with Alison Testroete (Aaron's) getting to within 20 seconds of bridging, but the race came down to these 12. The chase group of nine gradually dropped back, eventually merging with the remnants of the peloton to finish eight minutes back.

In addition to Wrubleski, Hobson, Gomez and Beveridge, the others who made the cut were Samplonius, Erinne Willock (Webcor), Heather Logan (Ontario), Sue Schlatter (EMD Serono Stevens), Merrill Collins (La Bicicletta), Joelle Numainville (Quebec), Audrey Lemieux (Quebec) and Natasha Elliott (EMD Serono Stevens). Beveridge and Numainville were the only two U-23 riders in the group.

For the third lap and the first half of the last lap, the group worked well together, rotating through a double paceline steadily. In the final half lap, as the riders left the headwind behind, with only a crosswind section and a final tailwind run into the finish, the attacks began.

"Erinne and I had two strategies," explained Wrubleski. "Erinne was going to attack and I would counter, and if that didn't work then Erinne was going to lead me in for the sprint finish."

The pair did attack, with Willock getting 15 seconds clear with Gomez and Hobson at 10 kilometres to go, but it wasn't enough, as Samplonius and Collins towed a reduced group of six back to the front three.

So the Webcor women went to Plan B, with Willock towing the group in at a high tempo for the final eight kilometres.

"Erinne did a great job for Alex," Hobson agreed. "She was pulled us hard enough that no one wanted to attack and it was a great lead out for Alex."

"Erinne was so strong," commented Wrubleski "she had me hurting on the climbs. It worked out perfectly. A couple of riders came around at about 500 metres to go, and I got on them and then went to the front in the final few hundred metres."

Race Notes

- Leigh Hobson revealed after the race that, like Anne Samplonius, this will be her final Nationals, and the Olympic road race will be her final race (on her birthday). Hobson has been on a sabbatical from teaching high school physical education for the past two and half years, and will return to the classroom after Beijing.

- Beveridge actually forgot about the U-23 race within the race, as she worked for team mate Gomez to make the podium. "It wasn't until they came up and told me that they needed me at the podium that I realized I had won."