October 10, 2003 (Hamilton, ON) – The junior women's road race is set to start at nine this morning. Canada has four riders who will be wearing the red, white and blue colours of the Canadian jerseys. The junior women will be racing six laps of the 12.4km loop for a total of 74.4km today. On the start line will be 58 women representing twenty-one countries from around the world. Audrey Lemieux, no stranger to world championship events, will be returning to compete in her second World Championships as a junior.

Last season, Lemieux finished 22nd at the 2002 ITT at Worlds and 7th in the road race. This season Lemieux has captured national titles in both the ITT and the road race at the National Championships. She competed just recently at the Junior Track World Championships in Moscow, Russia and came back with a solid 15th place in the women's points race – this season being only her second year racing on the track! You can find out more about Audrey at in Pedal's feature section (http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=968) or at her personal website: www.cybernaute.com/audreylemieux/.

Lemieux was one of two riders to race in the junior women's individual time trial earlier this week where she finished in 16th place.

The second rider to represent Canada is another Quebec rider, St. Cuthbert's Emilie Roy. Roy placed second to Lemieux in both the time trial and the road race at Nationals this year. Later in the season she competed in the Green Mountain Stage Race against senior women and finished 11th overall in the pro field. A few days ago she raced the individual time trial, finishing in 18th place, three seconds slower than Lemieux. This is her first World Championships.

The other two riders on the team are BC's Emily Sandwidth and Ontario's Anna Tratnyek. Both will be racing their first World Championships as well. Sandwidth finished third in the road race at nationals and Tratnyek was fifth.