June 24/24 20:38 pm - Vallieres Mill & Julien Take Criterium Titles

Posted by Editoress on 06/24/24
 

The Canadian Road Nationals concluded on Monday with the Criterium - not a UCI recognized event, but titles are awarded and recognized in Canada and the USA. Magdeleine Vallieres Mill (EF Education Cannondale) used the motivation of finishing second in the road race a day earlier to completely dominate the Elite women's race, lapping the field, while Matisse Julien (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) won the men's from a two person breakaway. In the Junior races, Adam Smith (PNW Racing) soloed in for the men's win and Alexandra Volstad (Team Alberta) took her second win of the weekend in the women's race.

The circuit finishes on the same 250 metre climb as the road races, but this time riders had to ascend multiple times, and it proved to be a hard course. All races finished with most of the field DNFing - only ten riders in the Elite women.

Both Junior races took place in cool, steady rain. The women's race was one of attrition, with the field whittled down to six riders, and then to three for the final couple of laps. Volstad, who had won the women's road title on the same climb two days earlier, attacked her two breakaway companions on the final climb, finishing clear of Emily Moore (Team Ontario) and Rafaelle Carrier (Equipe du Quebec). In the men's race, PNW Racing kept launching attacks until one stuck with Smith. He opened a 20 second gap on the small remaining field, with Mikael Guilbault (Equipe du Quebec) jumping away from the chase with a couple of laps to go to claim second, while Smith's teammate Ben Morin took third.

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The rain had stopped and it started to dry up for the Elite women's 55 minute plus five lap race. Vallieres Mill wasted no time going to the front on the climb every lap, shredding the field. She quickly got a gap, and was joined only by Sarah van Dam (DNA Racing), but van Dam couldn't maintain the pace and dropped back. Van Dam's teammate Nadia Gontova attacked out of the field and managed to establish a gap for second, but Vallieres Mill was on fire, rolling past the remnants of the bunch with two laps to go. Alexandrine Obrand (Terun Elite) won the sprint for third.

The Elite men's race also started aggressively, with groups of riders getting dropped every lap. Felix Hamel (Ecoflo Chronos) tried an attack halfway through the timed portion and Julien bridged up, taking charge as the pair slowly opened a 15 second lead. The gap then yo-yo'd at 10-25 seconds, with Julien upping the pace every time someone went to the front to chase them down. With five laps to go, and the rain having returned, the duo looked safe for the top spots, and Reid Kinniburgh (TaG Cycling) managed to open a gap on the rest of the group to move into third spot. Julien attacked on the final climb to easily take the win ahead of Hamel, and Kinniburgh managed to hold off Olivier Hamel for the final podium spot.

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