September 1/99 12:00 pm - Harvest Tour, Juniors in Europe

Posted by Editoress on 09/1/99
 

The Throop Photographic Harvest Ride

Every bicycle ride is special, but you'll never have more fun than at the second annual Throop Photographic Harvest Ride. It's in support of both the advocacy group Citizens for Safe Cycling as well as National Capital FreeNet.

The touring distances for road riding are 15, 40, and 110 kilometres. There is a complimentary training course for children for children. The setting for this epic event is at Newbridge Networks in Kanata, Ontario on Sunday, September 12.

If you have any follow up questions, please call our hotline at (613)-722-4454. All of the juicy details are located in our creative website, www.ncf.carleton.ca/ride. The Harvest Ride is loaded with entertainment, prizes, food, and most importantly, great cycling for everybody!

Fred Perel


Juniors in Europe

The Trophéo Karlsberg was the last stage race on the juniors european calendar. A stage race located in Germany's Saarland province just on the other side of the french border about 80 kilometres from Metz. The terrain is that of beautiful rolling hills on fast roads that only germans seem to be able to build.

The race started on Thursday August 26th and would finish on the 29th. On stage one was a 120 km road race with small circuits in it starting and finishing in Homburg (not Hamburg). The guys all had a decent ride except for Eric Dubé who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time up a climb at 80 km from the finish. He unfortunately did not regain contact with the group and ended up doing a 40km time trial to finish about 12 minutes down.

During that time, a break of 12 strong got up the road with no canadians in it, but the chase was on...

With the break crossing the line with an advantage of about two minutes and the win going to an English rider the pack was wound up with Martin Gilbert and Dominique Rollin lining it up for the sprint. Unfortunately for them and the pack a round about suddenly arose in front of them at 500 metres from the finish sending Dominique flying, but in the wrong direction. End result, all our guys got pack time except for Eric for obvious reasons.

Stage 2

Circuit race of 113 kms in Saarguemines France.

Not a very difficult circuit with few real breakaways sticking. Once in a while a solo rider would take off only to be caught by the group a couple of kms later. For our guys, it was a race of positioning before the finishing climb every lap. For Charlie Gorman it was a race of crashes and race caravans.

On the end of the first lap of 6 Charlie flatted and managed to regain the group after a lap of efforts only to crash in a ditch in a narrow descent. He had the option of running into the Norwegan car or the ditch. He opted for the ditch.... Good choice Charlie!

In the final kilometres with no breaks up the road Mathieu Béliveau tried an attack with a Rabobank rider but got caught with a few hectometres to go... Good try!

Charlie would bring up the rear because of his crash and his other near miss on the last lap....

Stage 3a

9 kilometre time trial

For once there was a time trial that did not help out the best funded aero equipped teams.... With a 3 k climb at the end aero equipment is mute.

For the canucks the best time went to Charlie Gorman with about a minute down on the swedish winner. The others would finish pretty much in the same times as Eric, runner up canadian, with 1m30 down on the swede.

Stage 3 b Race circuits around Saarbrücke 113kms

Probably the hardest stage in the tour with two different circuits each one having good climbs in them.... Funny how they put the hardest stages after a morning TT !?

Just before leaving the first circuit a group of 7 got up the road no canadians. On the last climb of the circuit Charlie took off with a Lettonian in hot pursuit of a 2min lead break. After dropping the lettonian Charlie came up to about a minute from the break before the rest of the pack decided to pick up the pace. 15 kms later as we hit the last circuit and the hardest, Charlie's break was swallowed and Charlie was spit out the back body moving left right and centre like Dominique Perras after the Mt. Ventoux stage in the Tour du Vaucluse 1994.

During the time Charlie was up the road Mathieu was having a rough day like all get from time to time; when you wake up and your heart is pumping at 130 you know a hard day is ahead. Mathieu would call it quits on the second circuit.

Next to get shot out after Charlie was Dominique on the final 6 lap circuit. Dominique after a great month of good riding was showing signs of fatigue. A well deserved rest is coming...

For the two left Martin and Éric it was a game of hanging on as the pace got faster and faster each time un the climbs. Kinda the opposite of canadian racing where it gets slower and slower each time up towards the finish. Both would eventually finish in the group but not being able to sprint.

Stage 4 Circuit race in Widesheim of 130 kms

After 3 days of good hard racing this stage was to be a race of attrition for all riders. For Charlie it was clear from the word go that he had not recovered from his last two days and that dropping out was to be considered. At the 40 km mark Charlie was out.

With 50 kms to go it was Dominique's turn to get dropped and it was pointless for him to continue a rest for him was a long time coming...

So with two riders left and the pace starting to pick up some it was Eric's turn to feel the wrath of the high speed tempo as breaks were forming up the road. Éric would finish with a small group about 8minutes down.

The surprise of the day came with Martin being able to hang on to the chase group on the last lap as the yellow jersey of the swede was bringing back the break single handily. In the final sprint as the break crossed the line with a 5 second advantage Martin would get dropped slightly from the main group of now 50 riders to finish 13 seconds down.

All in all it was a good race of fairly good climbs that will resemble the world course in Italy. Therefor now the guys know what to expect and know what to work on. All of them have some work to do but they are not far from the international level. The more you race internationally, the better you become. As long as you respect the recuperation time between races....

Jacques Landry
National team development coach