August 14/13 18:55 pm - Canada Summer Games: Men Road Race results

Posted by Editoress on 08/14/13
 

Pierrick Naud Wins Road Race at Canada Games

Pierrick Naud of Team Quebec won the men’s road race at the Canada Games in a two-man sprint of the breakaway, locking up the second gold medal for Team Quebec in the road races at the Canada Games.

At the finish line, Quebec’s sprinter Pierrick Naud took the win, while the Canada Games Time Trial Champion Matteo Dal-Cin took silver. In the sprint for the bronze medal, James Piccoli of Team Quebec outsprinted the small group of chasers to capture his second medal of the Canada Games, and Team Quebec’s fifth of six medals available at the road races.  The men completed 11 laps the 10.46 kilometre course, featuring a few punchy climbs at 10% grades.

“I know the strength of Matteo. He won the time trial race on Monday and he is a specialist in solitary effort. I knew that I sprint better than him, so I didn’t really want to take any chances by attacking and wasting my strength,” said Naud, the Canadian Criterium Champion. “With such a steep course, the selection was to be made naturally. I came here with the intention of winning. It’s not necessarily self-pressure, but it was in my objective, and I had confidence.”

The race of 44 cyclists started very fast, and a few unsuccessful breakaway swere attempted. In the second lap, just like Alizée Brien did in the morning in the women’s race, Adam DeVos of Team British Columbia took off in a solo attack.

Soon after, a chase formed with Pierrick Naud and James Piccoli of Team Québec, Matteo Dal-Cin and Ryan Aitcheson of Team Ontario and Andrew L’Esperance of Team Nova Scotia.

Throughout the race, the chase group continued to work like clockwork, working together exchanging the lead. Ultimately, they decided to leave DeVos at the front while controlling the gap at no more than two minutes. As the race progressed and with a melting lead, DeVos was eventually caught in the eighth lap.

“Matteo and I raced into the same teams, and we are good friends. Cohesion in the break between us was very good,” admitted Naud.

With two laps to go and the solo break caught, Pierrick Naud of Team Québec and Matteo Dal-Cin of Team Ontario both attacked, and with an exhausted DeVos and the lone Nova Scotia rider Andrew l’Espérance, the bridge proved to be impossible to close.

“There were several of us in the chase group, and I felt that some began to be exhausted after a while. The breakaway was formed a little weird. Matteo gained distance a little bit on the descent, and I jumped to his wheel. We looked back, and no one joined. So we decided to work together,” explained Naud.

Results from today's men's road race in Sherbrooke, Quebec