May 7/07 7:29 am - VW-Trek Has Strong Weekend at Jiminy Peak Road Race & GP Brossard

Posted by Editor on 05/7/07
 

VW-Trek Has Strong Weekend at Jiminy Peak Road Race & GP Brossard
Courtesy Josée Robitaille

The Volkswagen/Trek Professional Team out of Montreal Quebec headed down to Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts for a one day classic on Saturday (May 5th). The calibre of the field was strong, even with the number of other races going on in the U.S. this weekend. 140 riders took the start at the base of Jiminy Peak Ski Resort under sunny skies, that were trying desperately to melt away the last remnants of snow left on the hill. The course was rolling, with a 15km false flat and a 2km climax that finished off every lap and the race.

Many breaks tried to get away. Nothing succeeded until the 60km mark when a duo got away and there was no panic in the field. The FiordiFrutta team took responsibility and brought it back, but maybe a little too early, with 50km still to go of 150km. Attacks continued to fly but nothing was going to get away with so many teams covering every move.

On the penultimate climb up towards the finish line, with just over 30km to go, Ryan Mckenzie of broke free of the pack with a strong attack to bridge up to a CCB/Volkswagen rider fresh off the Tour of Virginia. The two worked hard to get out of sight of the chasing pack. With 20k to the line they had established just over a minute gap but a group of ten had broken away from the pack and were also working well together.

"They were able to bring us down to 30 seconds and we could see them every time the road straightened out so I just went to the front and pulled harder and got it back up to a minute again," explained McKenzie after the race. "I knew if we at least hold our gap before the final climb then we would have it"

McKenzie took second across the line for a very successful day for the Volkswagen/Trek Team.

The team hurried back up to Canada in their new 2007 VW Passats to take on the best of the best at the GP Brossards just outside of Montreal. National Champions past and present showed up to what is always one of the first big showdowns of the season. Dom Rollin, Dom Perras and David Veilleux were all working solo against full squads of Quebec's strongest teams, including three UCI Continental teams.

The VW/Trek team worked hard to bring a break of 5 back with only 800m left in the race and led out powerhouse Keven Lacombe for third place, with Veilleux taking the Super C GP Brossards victory.

Mckenzie and Lacombe are both in preparation for the Pan American Road and Track Championships coming up later this month in Valencia, Venezuela.