April 23/01 8:06 am - Paris-Ancaster Full Results, Report From Espoir Project

Posted by Editor on 04/23/01
 

Paris-Ancaster 2001

Full results for the 2001 Paris-Ancaster Enduro and 30 kilometre rides can be found at:

60K Enduro
30K Harrisburg Ride

Please note that disagreements with results should be directed to wow@wowmtb.com


Report From Tour de Loir et Cher - France
Courtesy Jacques Landry, CCA

With this 5 day stage race done and over with, the Loir et Cher event could be labelled under "learning experience" for the 6 Espoirs from Canada. The team for this year's race was composed of Cory Lange, Greg Sieniewicz, Dominique Rollin, Kai Jenkins, Bruno Langlois and Charles Gorman.

Because of the Terrain in the Loir Valley around Blois, riders had to be well positioned throughout the events if results were to be had.

The first stage was a cold and rainy one with just a little wind to add a little zest. All Canadians rode fairly well but managed to miss a few breaks that would eventually be neutralized. On the finishing circuits things started to break up and one rider from the Jean Floc'h Brittany team would take off to win solo, while teams like Rabobank, Go Pass and the German national team chased. 3 Canadians finished in the second group 23 seconds down while the rest finished further down, suffering from the cold and the miserable conditions.

The second stage was a windy one and so positioning was the key. Unfortunately, few riders had that key in their pocket; numerous breaks went up the road with top northern European countries doing some damage. The only two Canadians that managed to save a bit of face were Dominique Rollin and Cory Lange who, by working hard, rejoined the first group. Upon bridging up to the first group, Cory unfortunately bonked and was relegated to a later group. As for Charles Gorman, he would have to leave the race on the count of a bad crash 30 kms in that would leave his right hip incapacitated.

On the stage from St-Sulpice to Vendome, Cory and Dominique would be the best riders of the team as they were getting into moves and being aggressive. As the peloton arrived on the finishing circuit Dominique, who was plagued by a puncture, managed to finish a bit off of the main 40 rider group as Cory was mixing it up for the top positions.

Saturday's stage was one to forget for the team as a big break of 10 riders went up the road and eventually got 6 minutes with no Canucks. After the feed zone and the last GPM before the circuit it was established that Greg and Bruno would help out the teams not represented in the break to do some work bringing back the 10 man group. Unfortunately, the hammer went down before the GPM (KOM) and because positioning in the peloton has not yet sunk into the Canadian's heads they all got dropped from the main group and ended up doing a fair share of the work in a 20 man laughing group.

Sunday was a double stage day where, once again, Dominique and Cory went on the offence. On the finishing circuit Cory took off solo and had up to 24 seconds on a peloton paced by the Go-Pass team. On the final lap of 5 kms, all teams with stage win aspirations went to the front and caught Cory with 2 kms to go. Good effort none the less...

In the afternoon it was time to wrap up this stage race with a 9.3 kms ten lap circuit. On account of an alleged knee problem Greg decided to not take the start. On lap 2 Bruno's knee problems also surfaced and so the Canadian team was down to 2 souls.

As anticipated the Go-Pass team paced the race and stage would finish with rider from Jean Floc'h crossing the finish line first with a slim lead.

This project was put on the National Team program for two reasons. The first reason was to prepare the riders to European pace before hitting the faster Espoir International one day races next week. The other reason was to give our Canadians an opportunity to learn how to race in the wind. The point was to make the Canucks realize that in windy races it is not always the strongest riders that win, but more the smartest, most well positioned riders that get in the moves.

Hopefully, mistakes made during this race will not be repeated in the future races. For our Canadians, it is not a lack of physical strength as much as it is a lack of clout and not reading races properly. There is only so much that can be achieve with race radios...

Jacques Landry
National Development Coach