May 28/01 12:21 pm - Jeanson Wins, Track World Cup Final Report

Posted by Editor on 05/28/01
 

Cloudsplitter Bicycle Classic - New York
Courtesy Team Rona

Lake Placid, New York, May 27, 2001 - Drawn along by her leader, Geneviève Jeanson for almost the entire duration of this difficult stage, Amy Jarvis crossed the finish line at the same time as her teammate, moving from fifth to second place in the general standings, just 1' xx" behind Jeanson.

Manon Jutras and Gabriela de Ferrat now hold third and fourth place in the general standings of the Cloudsplitter Classic, having finished the stage together, along with Mélanie Dorion (André Lalonde Sports), approximately 10 minutes behind Jeanson and Jarvis.

The 120 km stage was a very hard, mountainous one. The competitors had to climb the Styles Brook wall twice, no mean feat at 3.2 km long with several 15% pitches.

The stage began with a 2.5 km neutralized course, but once this section was over, Amy Jarvis started to up the tempo, to get the race rolling. "I accelerated for a few meters, just to get things going, but when I turned around, I saw that no one was following me," explained Jarvis. "I hesitated for a moment, but then I just continued, and the gap began to open up." In fact, the gap grew to 10, then 20 and then 30 seconds. Then Jeanson made her own breakaway and moved ahead to join her teammate. And that's the last they saw of the pack.

Jeanson and Jarvis took it in turns for about twenty kilometers, until the route began to climb. Then Jeanson turned on her locomotive power, drawing Jarvis along with her, and together they widened the gap. But that wasn't enough for Jeanson, who wanted to get in a hard workout. Ten times she left Jarvis behind on a climb, only to go back down to help her up the slope.

Somewhere behind them, de Ferrat and Jutras also broke away, with Mélanie Dorion in their wake. All three worked effectively to distance themselves from the pack. Then Raphaële Lemieux, facing the longest race of her life so far, pulled away in another group of four cyclists.

By mid-race, Jeanson and Jarvis had a lead of some 7'30" over de Ferrat, Jutras and Dorion.

At the end of the course, Jeanson and Jarvis crossed the line together, with Jeanson winning the stage. "Geneviève wanted to give me the stage win," admitted Amy Jarvis, "but I refused. She really deserved to win! It is very inspirational to ride with Geneviève like that, in one of her ... Å’training sessions'! "

Gabriela de Ferrat, Manon Jutras and Mélanie Dorion finished respectively third, fourth and fifth of the stage.

At 7 p.m., the organizers of the Cloudsplitter had not yet disclosed the official rankings and times because of protests on certain of today's races. These protests do not impact the general classification of the leading women. After the second stage, Geneviève Jeanson is leading and is followed in the general classification by her teammates Amy Jarvis, Manon Jutras and Gabriela de Ferrat.

Tomorrow the racers face a 30.9 km criterium through the streets of Saranac Lake.


UCI TRack World Cup - Cali, Colombia

National coach/manager Kurt Innes has been sending in reports.

Final day of competition wrapped up today here in Cali, Colombia. The day was a busy one with all 9 of our Canadian athletes taking part in the competition. Starting off the day was Steen Madsen in the men's Keirin. Steen ended up in the 7-12 final, after battling his way thru the first ride, repechage round, and semi final rides. After 4 Keirins in one day, Steen had a bout of bad "Keirin" luck and was actually upended (crashed) just after the finish of the first corner. Barry Forde of Barbados hesitated and didn't take the pace bike from his #1 position on the start line. This caused the rest of the group of 6 riders to also hesitate going into the first corner, and this caused all the riders to bunch up exiting the corner. Steen and a British rider bumped , going down to the apron. When the British rider then lost control of his front wheel and falling in front of Steen. The race continued along without these two athletes. Unfortunately this ride would have granted the top 4 riders UCI points towards World's qualification.

Lars Madsen, Tyler Hansen, and Jim Fisher competed in the men's Olympic Sprint event, ending up 10th overall (47.559). The event was won by Germany (45.572) with France close behind (45.595).

In the women's 500 metre time trial Lori -Ann Muenzer placed 9th (35.861). The event was won by Markovnechenko (Belarus) with a time of 35.321. There were 10 women under 36 seconds in the event today, a very fast field for the women's 500 metre!

Mandy Poitras and Erin Carter competed in the women's Points Race. Mandy was able to unleash her world famous final sprint on the field of 18 women, and gain 10 valuable points towards her 2 points gained during midway sprints. With 12 points Mandy was able to finish 4th overall. Erin Carter finished in the pack, with 0 points. With the final sprint remaining, Mandy sat in 12th position (2 points) on points . As the final sprint is worth double points and the 10 points for the win will often drastically change the composition of the leader board. This again was the case, and Mandy vaulted from 12th up to 4th position with these 10 points.

Glen Rendall and Alex Cloutier were our Madison team here in Cali. The guys started along with 13 other teams in the 40 kilometer event (160 laps). After 50 laps it was clear that the pace was too fast for our Canadian team as Glen and Alex were lapped for the 1st time. After another 30 laps they again were lapped and pulled from the race. The event lasted just over 45 minutes (for the 40 km race) and the speeds of many of the sprints were well over 60 k/hr. (with 2 sprints timed at 11.4 - about 64 km/hr). 2 teams lapped the entire field (Germany and Argentina) with the reigning world champions from Germany winning in the end.

All in all, a good performance from our team. The future looks bright for the track program in Canada. With UCI points earned in 6 events here in Cali, our team will continue to gain experience and confidence against the world's best. Hopefully these results along with our upcoming Nationals in Edmonton will inspire many young (and old) athletes to come out to one of our local velodromes all over Canada and give track cycling a try.

Next up on the International schedule is the UCI World Cup #2 being held in Poland in 2 weeks. Lori-Ann Muenzer and Steen Madsen will compete for Canada.

Kurt Innes