March 5, 2006 — Canadian Road Champion, François Parisien (TIAA-Cref), was part of a decisive breakaway at the Grand Prix de Lilliers, that took place today in France. The 175K course is ranked 1.2 according to the UCI’s levels of difficulty. Parisien was among a handful of riders who created a breakaway after only 20K and quickly gaining a full minute on the peloton. For his efforts in the breakaway, Parisien earned a fourth place finish – his best yet in the pro peloton. Germany’s Markus Eichler (Regiostrom-Senges), also in the break, went on to win the race.

“After the winning the Canadian road championships, this is definitely the second best result I’ve ever had,” enthused Parisien. “We had the wind in our faces at first, but then it changed to a side-wind; at that point we all just took off and rode really hard.”

The gap between the main pack and the break was as high as five minutes until Rabobank decided to reel in the leaders. “Rabobank just came after us like crazy! Within 20K they had diminished our five-minute lead to only one minute. At that point, everyone in the breakaway started to disagree at what to do – but we’d been in the break for 100K already so I decided I wasn’t going to let that go to waste,” said Parisien. “I felt good and I was confident, so we just went for it.”

He “went for it” indeed, launching an attack with French rider Anthony Jaunet, a past Tour de l’Abitibi winner, and former Tour de France participant Médéric Clain (V.C. Roubaix). The trio rode at roughly 50km/hour for 20K gaining back another minute and twenty second advantange on the main pack.

Dutch powerhouse team Rabobank continued their chase on Parisien, Jaunet, and Clain, however they unknowingly set up German rider Markus Eichler (Regiostrom-Senges), who took advantage of everyone’s tired legs and sprinted for the win with 2K to the finish.

“Our group was in a break away for 150K,” added Parisien regretfully, “and Eichler was less tired than we all were. Nevertheless, it’s my first excellent result as a pro – coming in fourth is much better than coming in twentieth. In the end, I was only 13 seconds behind Eichler, and only two seconds off Jaunet and Clain.”

Editor’s note: Canada’s Dominique Rollin (VC Roubaix) was also at this race and finished in 17th place, 35 seconds back. Here is a link to two pictures: 1) Rollin and Parisien 2) Parisien at the start line – courtesy of Veloptimum

www.geocities.com/veloptimumcourse/6/3mars/Lillers.html