November 15/24 19:53 pm - Quebec Wins (Unofficial) Relay Title
Posted by Editoress on 11/15/24
The 2024 Cyclo-cross Nationals opened Friday afternoon with a Relay race. The Relay is not an official cyclo-cross national championship event, but the race gave riders an opportunity to do a race pace lap of the circuit. Team Quebec 1 (Carrier/Dufresne/Duval/Bouchard) won the race, 14 second in front of Trek 2 (Hallahan/Ackert/M St-Onge/I Holmgren), with Trek 1 (A Holmgren/G Holmgren/Belzile/MF St-Onge) a further eight seconds behind.
Comments from the riders were that it is a technical circuit, made more difficult by the thawing mud on sections of the course. National coach (and former national champion) Michael van den Ham said it's a course where "the best rider will win; it will take a complete ride to win this". He also points to the Elite women's race as possibly the most exciting of the day, with the depth of the field.
Ian Ackert, the Under-23 men's Pan American champion, called it "a very technical course, especially on the sections where it is getting muddy. You will have to have a lot of patience".
The National titles in Masters, U17, Junior, U23 and Elite will be awarded on Saturday. A number of the top U23 riders are 'riding up' in the Elite category, including Isabella and Ava Holmgren, and Ian Ackert.
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