June 27/13 23:28 pm - Para Road Nationals Open with Time Trials
Posted by Editoress on 06/27/13
The 2013 Canadian Road Championships saw an increase in participation among the strong group of Canadian paracyclists. The country’s best cyclists with a disability converged on Lac Mégantic, QC, to race for the coveted Maple Leaf jersey awarded to the Canadian champion.
With Canada hosting the 2013 UCI World Cup Finals in Matane and World Championships in Baie-Comeau later this summer, everyone came ready to perform and show their potential and fitness progress.
In the Tandem races, the experienced team of Daniel Chalifour and Alexandre Cloutier won the race by just 0.08% of the National standard over the second place team of Robbi Weldon and Emilie Roy. Alexandre Carrier and Aroussen Laflamme, who have raced the World Cup together this season, took the third spot.
“The race was really tight, it was a just a matter of seconds between us and Weldon/Roy. We knew that they are good time triallists, and we had our work cut out for us. We didn’t do a proper warm up, so we used the first few minutes to properly warm up,” said Chalifour.
The victory is even sweeter for the Chalifour/Cloutier team, as Cloutier was celebrating the birth of a new baby just 10 days earlier.
“It’s the annual trek to the Canadian Road Championships. It’s been eight years that we are attending, my seventh with Alexandre. The race went really well. We are very happy since Alexandre’s wife just gave birth. He’s got good form, but he’s very tired also. In addition, we broke our bike at the Defi Sportif, and we had to order a new frame, which just arrived a few days ago. He had to set up the bike yesterday,” explained Chalifour.
In the C category, Jaye Milley (Team Alberta) won the coveted Maple Leaf jersey by posting 103% of the National Team standard. 2012 Paralympic medallist Marie-Claude Molnar (Équipe du Québec) came in second with 102.3% of her standard, while Arnold Boldt (Team Saskatchewan) came third at 101.1%.
“I’ve been around for eight years, and I have been trying every single year to win that coveted jersey. Finally it is here. I can’t describe the feeling of winning. It’s absolutely exhilarating to win a Canadian Championships," said Milley, who is recovering from a crash at a race earlier this season. “With that jersey comes responsibilities. I’ll represent my country to the best I can as the Canadian Champion in the Time Trial at the World Championships, and I’ll bring it home hopefully.”
In the Handcycling races, Mark Beggs (Équipe du Québec) won the race of the combined H categories. Charles Moreau (Équipe du Québec) rode to second place, while Robert Labbé (Équipe du Québec) posting the third best result.
Dominique Mainguy (Team Quebec) was the fastest of the tricycle race and took the jersey, finishing the combined race with a time of 20:30. The reigning World T1 Champion Shelley Gautier (Team Ontario) finished second at 21:25, while Louis-Albert Corriveau-Jolin (Team Québec) came in third.
The top para-cyclists will now enjoy a full day of recovery, and will compete for the road race titles on Saturday.
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