October 2/14 12:38 pm - Tobago Cycle Classic: Stages 1 & 2 results and report

Posted by Editoress on 10/2/14
 

Tobago Classic - Jean-Michel Lachance Stages 1 & 2 Report

Canadian Jean-Michel Lachance is down racing at the Tobago Classic (along with other Canadians, such as Anton Varabei, Trevor Connor and Kevin Lynch) and sent in a report from the first two stages.

Tuesday (September 30th) was the start of the Tobago Cycling Classic. It is a special event for me, as it was my first international race outside of Canada in 2005, as a Junior rider. That didn't go so good, as I broke my chain on stage 2, crashed hard and spent the remaining days finishing my algebra homework. I came back the next year with Marc-Wayne Addisson as a DS and I completed the whole Tour, finishing in 13th position.

Two years later, I joined Emile Abraham (Team Gremli), the "local hero". We won the Tour with the New Zealand rider Heath Blackgrove. In 2009, I did it again with Emile as Team Barcode and missed the yellow jersey on Stage 2 by 0.002 seconds after a good time trial and breakaway. I then had bad luck with a mechanical and went on to finish the Tour in ninth.

In 2011, the event format changed drastically from typical stage racing to a Points Omnium followed by a UCI 1.2 category one day race around the island. I went there with my own team "1% for the Planet" and we won a stage plus second place on the UCI race, both with Belgian Nick Daems. Finally, I last did the race in 2012, where I won the first stage and finished fourth on the GC Omnium.

2014 is my seventh participation to the event! What makes the Tobago Cycling Classic so appealing is the ambiance. I don't know of any other race where you can race an international field in the morning and enjoy 85 degrees crystal clear water and sandy beach in the afternoon. That being said, I quickly accepted again the invite to race for Emile Abraham's Incycle Predator.

Photo (l-r): Emile Abraham, Daniel Pattern, Andrew Scarano, Winston David, Michael Olheiser, Jean-Michel Lachance, Jamie Wilkins

Stage 1: Having won on two different occasions on the same course (Stage 6 - Tour of Trinidad and Tobago, and Stage 1 of Tobago Cycling Classic 2012), I had high motivation to repeat. The race consisted of 10 laps of 10.7 kilometres; mostly flat with a few intermediate sprints. On the very first lap, I got myself in a breakaway with one of my teammates, Winston David. On the following lap, the break split, with him and a Swedish rider off the front. After that, the peloton came back to my group. The heat (38 degrees) affected lots of riders and the gap went up to 2:30 with two laps to go. Me and Emile then broke away with a few other riders. I led him out for third and as we crossed the line, we heard our teammate Winston had won, making it a very strong start for the team with the Yellow and Points jerseys, plus the Team GC lead.

Stage 2: The second stage promised to be harder with four laps of 26 kilometres, with steep climbs and twisty descents. We took charge of the race right from the start. After the first time up the longest climb, the field had shredded from 92 to about 30 and then the first descent did as much damage, with only 12 of us in the front group. Me and Michael Olheiser then rode tempo all stage to protect Winston's lead and giving him the best chance to score more points over the other riders. He finished second on the stage after French rider Daniel Aurélien.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then we will be racing two Criteriums of 75 and 50 kilometres) There will be a livestream (LINK HERE) to follow those two races:

October 3rd: 15h00 GMT -5 hours
October 4th: 16h00 GMT -5 hours

After that, it's the UCI race; "Winner takes all", as my teammate Michael Olheiser would say! 120 kilometres with many Cat 3 and 2 climbs, with average grades of 8% to 15%.

Results and standings after the first 2 stages