Boivin, the reigning Canadian Elite Men’s road champ, praised his teammates for delivering him to the winning break and the finishing sprint but was clearly disappointed with the colour of his medal.
“The guys did their job – everyone killed themselves for me but I came up short. I made a small mistake near the end and got boxed in which likely cost me the gold,” said Boivin post-race. “Sean MacKinnon is only 19 and put it all out there as did Hugo [Houle] and Remi [Pelletier-Roy]. It’s disappointing and I hope to get another shot down the road.”
He quipped that Cycling Canada HP Director, Jacques Landry, told him all other Team Canada Pan Am cycling members had a medal execept him. “Of course that motivated me… so at least I was able to take home a medal as well.”
The race was one of attrition as American Marcotte animated things early on. The former US Road Race champ and current US Crit champ was fired up, and by mid-race, the peloton was feeling the pain of the various attacks.
Boivin and MacKinnon were in the lead chase group as Houle and Pelletier-Roy were further back. Marcotte was reeled in, but on the 6th lap, he got away again with Ignacio Sarabia Diaz (Mex), and Ecuador’s Segundo Navarrete (ECU) and they stayed away for several laps.
The chasing pack seemed in disarray as MacKinnon and Pelletier-Roy were dropped having done their best for Boivin who was now in the lead chase group with Houle behind. Finally on the last lap Marcotte attacked the break and was out front alone as six riders, including Boivin, exploded from the chase pack and bridged to the two riders from the original break.
“I was pretty confident we could catch them and we did,” said Boivin post-race.
With about 10km to go Marcotte was caught and then four riders emerged as the final race leaders – Boivin, Marcotte, Ubeto and Mauro Richeze (Arg). The peloton continued to chase but the 30s-gap was too big as the finish line approached, altho the gap did come down to 10 seconds near the end.
In the final sprint to the line Boivin found himself boxed in and had to brake a few times to avoid collisions and settled for third. “I was looking for a way through but each time it closed and I had to brake several times – not the way to win a bike race. It’s my fault – the guys did their job and I was supposed to seal the deal. I’m disappointed but maybe after a few days it won’t feel so bad.”
Boivin was 11th at the last Pan Am Games back in 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico where Ubeto finished second to Dutch rider, Marc De Maar, in a close battle. Apparently Ubeto’s pedal unclipped near the end costing him the race. He recently finished a 2-year suspension after testing positive back in 2013 for the controversial drug GW1516 sulfone.
Following numerous strong top-1o results both in Europe and here in North America at the Tour of the Gila, Joe Martin Stage Race, Tour of California, North Star Grand Prix, including a stage win at the Tour de Beauce, along with reclaiming the Elite Men’s road title, Boivin has been on a roll and wanted more.
With his bronze Canada’s cycling tally at the 2015 Pan Am Games hits a whopping 20 medals – 11G 3S and 6B.
Results
1. Miguel Ubeto Aponte (Venezuela) 3:46:26
2. Eric Marcotte (United States of America)
3. Guillaume Boivin (Canada)
4. Mauro Richeze (Argentina)
5. Thiago Duarte Nardin (Brazil) 00:07
6. Enrique Diaz Cedeño (Venezuela) 00:08
7. Bayron Guama De La Cruz (Ecuador) 00:09
8. Emile Abraham (Trinidad and Tobago) 00:09
9. Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Colombia)
10. Diego Milan (Dominican Republic)
11. Xavier Quevedo (Venezuela)
12. Efren Ortega Rivera (Puerto Rico)
13. Joao M. Pereira Gaspar (Brazil) 00:10
14. Alfredo Ajpacaja Tax (Guatemala)
15. Manuel Rodas Ochoa (Guatemala)
16. Luis Sepulveda (Chile)
17. Juan Magallanes (Mexico)
18. Hugo Houle (Canada)
19. Ignacio Prado (Mexico) 00:11
20. Patricio Almonacid (Chile) 00:25
21. Cristopher Mansilla (Chile) 00:51
22. Jose Aguirre (Mexico) 01:08
23. Ignacio Sarabia Diaz (Mexico)
24. Ragonessi Guzman.. (Ecuador)
25. Segundo Navarrete (Ecuador) 02:28
26. Cristian Da Rosa (Brazil) 04:44
27. Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina) 05:38
28. William Guzman Rosario (Dominican Republic)
29. Alex Norberto Cano Ardila (Colombia) 06:57
30. Daniel A. Jaramillo Diez (Colombia) 08:33
DNF Laureano Rosas (Argentina)
DNF Murilo Ferraz Affonso (Brazil)
DNF Jhonathan De Leon Paz (Guatemala)
DNF G. A. Garrido Zenteno (Chile)
DNF Yonder Godoy (Venezuela)
DNF Alonso Gamero Zuñiga (Peru)
DNF Rémi Pelletier-Roy (Canada)
DNF Dominique Mayho (Bermuda)
DNF Sean Mackinnon (Canada)
DNF Royner Navarro Calle (Peru)
DNF Alejandro Duran (Argentina)
DNF Andre Simon (Antigua and Barbuda)
DNS Juan Esteban Arango Carvajal (Colombia)