April 24, 2012 (Calabogie, ON) – On the start line in windy Calabogie, 390 riders were suited up ready to do battle at the Calabogie Motor Sports Park at O-Cup #2 with the sun peeping through overcast skies. The racetrack typically hosts amateur and club level performance driving enthusiasts, but Sunday played host to the second round of the Ontario O-Cup series.

In the elite men’s race, Glen Rendall (Ride with Rendall) emerged from final breakaway group after 111.1km to claim a slim victory over Bayden Pritchard (Speedriver.Com) and Anton Varabei (Jet Fuel Coffee).

The pace was high from the start with a successful breakaway of four riders emerging within the first 4km of racing represented by Real Deal Racing, OCTTO-Cervelo and Ride with Rendall. For the next six laps of the 5.05km course, the lead never grew by more than 1:10 as the peloton kept the leaders within their sight over the curving 23-turn racetrack. However, once a group of four riders bridged to the leaders the peloton quickly closed the gap.

The wind clearly played a factor on the short loop as things were somewhat jittery during the first 14 laps of the 22-lap race as none of almost a dozen attempts to breakaway were successful. After an OCTTO-Cervelo rider launched an attack with about 40km to go, a group of six riders quickly formed resulting in the day’s winning break. Rendall’s impressive acceleration at 200 metres to go lead to an impressive victory for the “home”  team.

The Elite Women’s field set off for 15 laps (75km) and was well represented with the new Infinit Nutrition/Cyclepower squad (formerly Reform) and Stevens Racing p/b The Cyclery mixing it up while the new Realdealracing.com team was a wildcard at this early season competition.

The Realdealracing trio were able to shield themselves early on in the race while local teams Infinit Nutrition/Cyclepower and Stevens Racing p/b The Cyclery each had a lone rider at the front of the race, but neither gained a gap of more than 45 seconds.

At the final left turn heading toward the finish line Catherine Dessureault (Realdealracing/La Bicicletta) broke away from the pack flanked by fellow teammate, and ex-pro triathlete, Evelyne Blouin and wouldn’t be caught. Realdealracing’s Julia Bradley claimed 3^rd position sprinting for the line over Audrey Bernard (Powerwatts-Fittime) to complete the podium.

Realdealracing’s impressive finish provides the Toronto-based team with important momentum heading into next month’s UCI 1.1 Gran Prix Cycliste Gatineau, likely an early season target.

 Full results HERE.