May 31, 2004 (Montreal) – The three-day, four-stage, Tour of Montreal kicked off today with a short 3.5K prologue in recent Montreal World Cup winner’s Genevieve Jeanson’s hometown of Lachine. The morning dawned bright and clear with light winds. The pancake flat bike path course featured a tailwind on the way out and a steady headwind coming home early in the day, but gradually faded as the morning ticked by.

After Saturday’s World Cup win, Jeanson certainly was an obvious favorite
for the Tour. Last year’s defending champion, Quark’s Lyne Bessette,
could be seen chatting with the media, a confident smile, clearly happy to
be racing in her backyard for her fans. Along with a strong Canadian
contingent, the roster had remarkable European flavor with Jeannie Longo,
Barbara Heeb, Judith Arndt, Diana Ziliute and Petra Rossner all competing.
The Australian Team also had a good representation with World Cup leader
Oenone Wood leading her National Team. Yet, despite the depth of the
European riders, it was the American Teams that swept the podium, with
Mayolo-Pic, flanked by her strong Genesis Team taking top honors. Just a
whisper behind the Georgian was American Dede Demet-Barry, coming off two
very strong wins at the recent Tour de L’Aude. In the third podium spot
was Bessette, just barely nudging out Arndt in fourth.

The race played out quickly with Sue Palmer Komar taking the top time early
on. Jeanson then came across with a time of 4:08 but the young rider was
shaking her head, knowing her time would not stand. It was her Rona
teammate Katrina Grove taking the lead, but only for a short time, when
Arndt finally broke the four-minute barrier. From Arndt’s time, it was then
a quick burst of times faster, but only by hundredths of a second until
finally Mayolo-Pic threw down the fastest time. With Bessette, Longo and
Demet-Barry still remaining in the line-up, Mayolo must have been all
nerves hoping her time would be good enough. In the end, it saw her to the
top of the podium, into the leader’s jersey, and to one of the biggest
wins of her season – an excellent triumph for Genesis-Scuba.

Tonight’s stage is a 50K criterium with time bonus sprints on
the line. With Mayolo’s strength as a sprinter, she should see
tomorrow’s stage into yellow; however, Bessette and Barry have strong
teams with a depth to give Genesis plenty of challenge in defending
Mayolo’s slender lead.

Results (unofficial at time of report)

1. Tina Mayolo-Pic (Genesis Scuba)


2. Dede Demet-Barry (T-Mobile)


3. Lyne Bessette (Quark)