May 17/08 6:14 am - Bromont Canada Cup XC #1: Report, Photos and Results

Posted by Editoress on 05/17/08
 

Canada Cup XC #1 Bromont, Quebec

Photos

The 2008 Canada Cup season opened strongly in Bromont, Quebec with the cross-country events, and it was Canada's future stars who took the top spots on the podium. U23 riders Raphael Gagne (Rocky Mountain) and Emily Batty (Trek Store) beat the elite competition convincingly on a hot, dusty and surprisingly difficult circuit to take the leader's jerseys for the Canada Cup.

The 4.3 kilometre circuit is only part of the course that will be used for the World Cup here in August, but already it is the climbing that stands out. With two major climbs in the first half of the loop, followed by rocky and rooted singletrack, it was hard to both go hard and stay in control.

In the women's six lap race, Batty rode off the front immediately on the first main climb, opening a 15 second gap on Amanda Sin (3 Rox Racing), which later stabilized at 30 seconds, before increasing in the final two laps. Behind Sin, Jean-Ann McKirdy (Rocky Mountain) took control of third place, and was closing in on Sin with a lap to go before fading in the last lap.

"I looked behind me at the top of the climb and I had a gap, so I just kept going," explained Batty. "It was a fun course, but you had to pay attention in the rocks, and at the end I was losing track of the laps."

In the men's eight lap race three riders immediately separated themselves from the field - Gagne, Derek Zandstra (3 Rox Racing) and Mat Toulouse (Maxxis). Behind, Eric Batty (Trek Store), Stefan Widmer (Rocky Mountain) and Adam Morka (3 Rox Racing) were chasing, but losing ground.

Zandstra set the initial fast pace, with both he and Toulouse opening gaps on Gagne on the climbs.

"They were dropping me by maybe 5 or 10 seconds each time on the first and second climb," said Gagne, "but each time I could catch them easily on the descent. This was my first real race of the season, so I was being a little more conservative in the early part of the race."

His conservatism served him well, as both Toulouse and Zandstra flatted at inopportune moments, allowing Gagne to establish a gap. Zandstra flatted on the third lap - "I pinched the wheel in a tight spot, and then I could hear it going 'psst', 'psst', 'psst', so I had to ride it carefully to the tech zone and exchange the wheel."

He quickly caught up to Toulouse, and the two were chasing Gagne when the Maxxis rider suffered his own flat: "it was a slow leak, so I stopped and quick filled it, then stopped again - which is when I lost Derek - and then had to stop and change the tube." Toulouse dropped well back and eventually finished 11th.

Zandstra recovered well to pull to within 50 seconds of Gagne by the finish for second, while Emily Batty's older brother Eric (Trek Store) worked his way up steadily through the field to take third place ahead of a late surge by Andrew Watson (Team Ontario).

In the Junior Men's six lap race, it was Team BC finishing 1-2, with Evan Guthrie leading almost from start to finish, followed by Tyler Allison, with local Charlevoix rider Nicolas Tremblay in third.

The Junior Women's race was marred by an unfortunate and costly mistake by Bianca Adolf (Team BC). Adolf took the lead of the four lap (shortened on the line by one lap) race early on, and was three minutes up on second place Leah Kirchmann (Team Manitoba) coming into the finish. However, she headed out for another lap instead of across the finish line (one of a number of riders who made the same mistake). A discussion over giving the win to Adolf ensued, but Manitoba said that they would protest, correctly pointing out that the rules require the rider to cross the line.