April 21/03 8:45 am - Euro Espoir Report

Posted by Editoress on 04/21/03
 

Canadian European Espoir Update



This past Easter weekend was the last weekend before the monthly goal, the Ruban Granitier Breton.

On Saturday the guys raced just north of Limoges in the GP Dun le Palestel. The region where the race was taking place is fairly hilly with rough roads; not Quebec rough but coarse so you think you're crawling all the time.

In any case the race started out well for the team as a break of 20 went up the road after 10kms with 3 canucks in the move; Ryan, Ian and Andrew. However, after 30kms luck turned as Ian was ejected from the break as his frame cracked and needed a bike change; and Ryan was shot off the because of the pace. The only guy still up there was Andrew.

In the back Warren and Cam were not having a top day but were managing to get in some moves nonetheless.

The break with Andrew would eventually take more and more time and with 20 to go things started splitting up due to attacks as Langella ex-pro from Credit Agricole went up the road solo for the win.

Andy ended up finishing for the 12th place.

In this race it would have been interesting to see how Ian would have faired, as he seemed to be in good form... Oh well, mechanicals.

On Monday was the GP du Pujols just north of the city of Agen, well known for its prunes... seems Agen's inhabitants are just "regular" people.

In any case the race was only 110kms long with an 11kms loop to do 10 times. All the guys were there for was to get in the moves and see what they could do... no pressure because the Granitier is coming up on Thursday and the guys need to be rested to fully benefit from the stage races load.

So not much to say except that Cam and Warren were feeling much better and were following a lot of moves early on.

In the end, the win went to Estadieu (Ex-AG2R) from Montauban.

On Wednesday the team makes their way up to Brittany for the Granitier; the starters are (Ian) Condron, (Cam) Evans, (Francois) Parisien, (Dominique) Rollin, (Ryan) Roth and (Warren) Tilbrook.

Jacques Landry
National Development Coach