As great as the time trial is, the road race is the heart of cycling since this is what these athletes compete in most often. The Junior Women raced 5 laps, for a total of just under 83 kilometers. About 2 kilometers in, the course featured a slow and steady climb with a couple of steep moments. Fien and I watched the first lap on a flat turn before finding a good looking switchback.
On the second lap, riders from Russia, Germany, and the Ukraine had escaped and had a lead of around 2 minutes.
They were chased by riders from Colombia and Denmark.
The peloton stayed grouped together early on but it didn't take long for them to string out.
By the next lap, it was just a matter of time until the Dane and Colombian caught the escapees.
Canada had 4 riders in the Junior Women's race. Kinley Gibson, below, finished in 51st.
Tessa Pinckston was off the back of the peloton for a good portion of the race but managed to finish in 49th. Since she was often alone, she really responded to my cheering and usually waved back to me. It was great to see an athlete able to give her all and enjoy it.
The field started with 81 riders, of whom 60 finished. During one of the last laps, the broom wagon honked violently at a Swedish rider. She pulled over to the side and stopped. Once the broom wagon had sped off, she turned her bike around and let gravity take her down the climb. She had failed to keep ahead of the broom wagon, so her race was done.
Four riders remained in the breakaway by the time they reached the climb on the final lap. These riders would ultimately compose the top 4 with Denmark in first, followed by Russia, Ukraine, and then Colombia off the podium.
Results
1st: Amalie Dideriksen, Denmark
2nd: Anastasiia Iakovenko, Russia
3rd: Olena Demydova, Ukraine
As the Under 23 road race was scheduled to start a couple of hours after the women's race wrapped up, the roads remained closed to traffic. Fien and I stayed put in case any of our favorites were checking out the course. The Croatian men rode by a couple of times and, in a refreshing change of pace, they always waved at me first. The Slovenian men's team was casual as they chatted and talked on cell phones riding up the climb.
Some of the Aussie squad, including Ritchie Porte in his Sky helmet and Rohan Dennis in his Garmin helmet, went for a ride on the course. Poland was with them but it seemed to be just the pro women and junior men. No sign of Maciej Bodnar yet!
The German men wear still in their trade team kits yesterday but today were wearing the German colors. Marcus Burghardt, center, in his typical yellow shoes.
At 173 kilometers and with 173 riders on the start line, the U23 road race was twice as long and twice as big as the morning's race. Their course included 7 laps on the same circuit. When the first riders arrived, it was a breakaway of 6 with a rider each from Romania, Estonia, Belarus, Latvia, Slovenia, and Eritrea.
The peloton showed up around 4 minutes later in a massive block.
There was relatively little change over the following few laps, other than seeing which riders were in danger of being swept up by the broom wagon.
Canada had just one rider participating in the afternoon's event. Given that only 84 of 173 riders finished the race, Antoine Duchesne did well to come in 46th.
With 2 laps to go, Fien and I abandoned our location on the climb to move towards the finish line. We watched part of the sixth lap in front of the feed zone where team staff offered water bottles, Coke, and musettes packed with snacks to hungry and thirsty riders. Below, a Slovakian rider tossed his empty water bottle and prepared to grab a fresh one. It's important that the hand off goes smoothly, otherwise a rider may drop a bottle or musette, leaving him dangerously low on energy with kilometers to go.
Upon reaching the feed zone, many riders decided to call it a day early in the penultimate lap.
We joined the swarm of people on their way to the finish line and caught the race leaders just as they started the last lap. Below, France looked over his shoulder to check on Slovenia.
When I recently saw Antoine Duchesne race at the Grand Prix in Quebec, I hadn't realized he was just 22 years old. I got to talk to him quickly after the race and he was as nice as you'd expect a Canadian to be!
We listened carefully to the race commentary in Italian and English but it was frustratingly useless. The American commentator spoke almost exclusively in similes and metaphors without actually conveying any information, at one point describing the race as a slow motion underwater fight scene in a James Bond movie (I don't know what that was supposed to mean and I was at the race). The Italian commentators said the names of a few of the riders but since I only know a couple of names in this peloton, it would have been infinitely more helpful if they had occasionally also mentioned what countries these riders were from.
Less than 30 minutes later, the race was over when a Slovenian cyclist crossed the line first. South Africa soloed to second place, while a Norwegian rider beat over a dozen riders in a bunch sprint to take third place.
American Nate Brown launched a late attack but it wasn't enough for third and he came in 13th place. I was really hoping either the young Garmin signee or his teammate, Lawson Craddock, would make the podium, but that's not how the race played out.
As the riders crossed the finish line, many of them continued to coast through, giving their legs a gentle spin after over 4 intense hours in the saddle. The security guards had a different idea and stood in front of several oncoming riders, trying to grab them as they began to slow down from the sprint. I'm guessing the security guards had been given instructions to keep the riders confined to the small area 30 meters past the finish line, but the fact that they actually were grabbing riders and trying to bring them to a dead stop was stupid and dangerous for everyone involved. Davide Villella barely managed to shake free from one security guard and exercised a few colorful gestures to express his irritation.
This sequence shows one security guard taking a hold of Toms Skujins' bike, the 5th place finisher. Skujins was just able to unclip in time to get his feet on the ground. Once he was stopped, the security guard moved on to find the next rider. It's incredible that no riders were injured and that no security guards got punched in the face. Would you stand at the 104 meter mark and use your body to bring Usain Bolt to a total stand still without first telling him to stop?
This French rider's legs were shaking so badly it looked like he as doing an Elvis impersonation. His coaches ended up pushing him on the bike so he wouldn't have to use his legs.
It was a busy scene as coaches found their athletes and the press descended on the riders. We spectators waited for the security guards to open the gates and allow us to watch the awards ceremony. Minutes passed and the awards music blared over the loudspeakers but the guards didn't budge. Surprisingly, no fans at all were let in so I would imagine the only witnesses to the medals presentation were the photographers. How disappointing for the athletes on the podium to be unable to share their moment with fans and family. I was none too impressed with the security guards this afternoon.
The international peloton loitered in front of the media tent.
Many of the trade teams have loaned their buses to the U23 national teams so the young German men guzzled their recovery drinks in comfort under the retractable canopy on the Argos bus. While the elite Swiss men are using the RadioShack bus this week, they didn't seem to be sharing it with the U23 team, leaving the Swiss youngsters to take wet wipe showers in the parking lot before piling into a van.
Eritrea fielded a full team of 6 riders, with one finishing in the top 15. This Eritrean spent a good while giving an interview while his teammates patiently waited.
Results
1st: Matej Mohoric, Slovenia
2nd: Louis Meintjes, South Africa
3rd: Sondre Hoist Enger, Norway