July 11, 2005 – Another National Road Championships have come and gone, with some old faces winning, and a few new ones coming to the fore.

Women’s RR and TT: Surprises and Confirmations

In the women’s race, there was a veritable role reversal: the time trialist won the road race, and the road racer won the TT! Colavita’s Sue Palmer-Komar surprised once again by outkicking an on-form Genevieve Jeanson (RONA-Colnago) by just 0.76 of a second. But Jeanson was vigilant, especially after last year’s disappointing Nationals for her, with a strong win in the 120km road race after being marked every inch of the way.

For her arch-rival Lyne Bessette, some bad luck as the two Queens of Quebec hit wheels; Bessette suffered derailleur damage which would prevent her from contesting the final laps to her best. Webcor’s Erinne Willock as another bright light of the day, once again making the right move and riding solidly all day. Willock has had a teriffic year, now that she can ride for herself, and yesterday’s road race was no surprise: she took second behind Jeanson.

Men’s RR and TT: A Tough Day For All

In the men’s races, all eyes were on Discovery’s Ryder Hesjedal. After racing many of the “big” Euro races this spring, many believed Hesjedal to be the odds-on favourite. But domestic racing is always different, and with strong teams like Symmetrics present (with numerous strong riders) at the close of the weekend’s racing there was not a Maple Leaf jersey for Hesjedal. The TT was won by Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) – no surprises there.

Tuft seems to have inherited the title as Canada’s best TT’er from his teammate Eric Wohlberg, who took second. Tuft shone at the Tour of Beauce and will once again don the red and white skinsuit in TTs for the next 365 days.

The road race was, as always, a race of attrition. It didn’t take much for all the favourites to separate themselves from the wannabes. A few shining lights had to be the performances of Stevens Racing’s Greg Reain, who suffered a horrible crash at the Tour de Beauce Bell, and Gearsracing.com’s Ryan Roth. Roth, who was very aggressive in the final laps in the break, ended up sixth overall; more importantly he was the first espoir, meaning he’s now a brand new shirt to wear.

For Hesjedal, the lanky British Columbian was either too ambitious, or perhaps he underestimated the field, or the race just wasn’t hard enough. With a challenging parcours, one would think he could easily take the race – even from a climber like Dominique Perras (Quebec), but it was not to be. In the end maybe Hesjedal raced too hard, too long, not saving a kick for the end. Ultimately, although appearing to be the strongest, he may have not been the best tactician; Hesjedal was seen driving every break, pulling almost every lap, setting tempo when he didn’t need to. Would he have fared better with a teammate or two? Of course, none of this can take away from Espoirs de Laval’s Francois Parisien, who had the ride of his life to take a great win. Look to hear more from this solid rider in the future.

Criterium: 20km and 36km Doth Not A Race Make?

And let’s not forget the criterium. After several years of being an unofficial championship, this year the race became officially official, sort of. The winner of each championship was awarded a National Championship jersey – slightly different than the road, but a jersey no less – that can be worn in Canadian and American criteriums. For someone like Charles Dionne (Webcor), who won the men’s race over Symmetrics’ Andrew Pinfold, this is a big plus. Dionne races primarily in the U.S. where crits are a big deal and this is bound to be worthwhile for his sponsor. The same could be said for the women’s , had Victory’s Gina Grain been able to take the win over track star Mandy Poitras (Symmetrics.)

This is the second year that the championships have been held in Kamloops, B.C. and things seemed to go according to plan. Almost all racers agree the course is a good and tough, with a nice city circuit where spectators can soak up the racing. Hopefully this sort of atmopshere will repeat next year when the Nationals move East to Quebec City. The only snag in the weekend’s racing might have been the men’s and women’s criteriums, which, at 20km and 36km long, seemed slightly insulting to some of the best road racers in Canada. Many were surprised at the length, including Symmetrics’ rider Andrew Pinfold.

“It was a tad short at only 36km, too short to really make anyone tired enough,” he explained. “When we started our leadout it was obvious everyone was very fresh, and it created a bit of a strange dynamic towards the end. I’m not quite sure why it was so short.”

For the answer to that question, Pedal turned to the race organizer, Henry Pejril. “The decision was made by the commissaires to shorten the event because it was the evening before the road races – especially for the juniors who were racing on Saturday,” Pejril explained. “Some people may be wondering about daylight, etc., but the race started exactly on time (5:00pm) and we had lights set up to deal with the photo finish in the event we went into dusk or dark conditions. The decision was primarily made due to the championship races the next two days.”

He continued to point out that when the race was originally scheduled it was not intended to be a National Championship Criterium, so organizers were expecting the field to round out with riders that weren’t in contention on the weekend. With the announcement only a couple of weeks ago that the Crit was again a National Championship a number of the Jr. and Elite riders signed up that probably wouldn’t have – prompting the officials to make the decision.

“If we had known in the planning stages that it would have been a National Championship event then we could have started earlier and given the race its due,” he said. “But with only a couple of weeks to go it would have been impossible to alter permits and traffic plans to extend the timeframe.”

Of course, arguably the best crit racers did take the wins – Dionne and Pinfold are some of the fastest sprinters in Canada, behind Health Net’s Gord Fraser. And Poitras and Grain are arguably, if not the, fastest women on wheels in this country. Would a longer race have made a difference? Hard to say, but hopefully next year’s organizers will take this year’s scenario into consideration. The province of Quebec is home to some of the best races in Canada, and a long, tough crit coupled with a long, tough road race would be rewarding for both the racers, the media, and the spectators.