June 28 2006 — The views are awesome on the streets of Québec City and Lévis, the venues for this year’s Canadian National Road Championship, and Josée Robitaille, Team Manager of the Volkswagen-Trek cycling team, is hoping her team’s performance will be every bit as breathtaking.

Volkswagen-Trek, which has won hundreds of races in its 20-year history, brings a team that’s an interesting mix of seasoned veterans and up-and-coming youngsters to the nationals, the June 29-July 2 event featuring the cream of the crop in Canadian cycling.

Three members of Volkswagen-Trek — Éric Boily of Chicoutimi, two-time Canadian junior champion in 2005, winner of 4 events in the Junior World Cup in Abitibi and, more recently, winner of the Balloon Festival Classic in Cambridge, N.Y.; Lac St-Jean’s Raphaël Tremblay, a two-time Canadian junior champion in 2003 and 2004; and Clovis Auger, a rookie with the team — were all selected to represent Quebec’s team Espoir at the nationals.

Other team members who have delivered strong performances in the first half of the 2006 season include junior Guillaume Blais-Dufour, winner of the Challenge Can Am U19 criterium in New Jersey, and Stéphane Cossette, who took gold in the road course category at the same event.

“This year’s Volkswagen-Trek team is basically our lineup for the next 3-4 years,” said Robitaille, who has coached more than 60 cyclists, 10 of which joined the pro ranks. “Having a junior team allows us to prepare the riders to move up to the senior team in two years. It’s a nice advantage for the juniors to be around the veteran senior cyclists. The seasoned racers can share some of that experience with the younger ones, and that

Volkswagen-Trek is sending a full contingent of junior and senior cyclists to the championship, with the exception of 2005 Canada Games gold medalist Keven Lacombe of Amos, who is sidelined with a fractured femur. Nevertheless, we might see Keven perform in the individual time trial this weekend.

“It’s great to have the national championship in our home province,” remarked Robitaille. “We’d like to get a few podiums in front of the home crowd. It’s always fun to be competing in home surroundings, with parents and friends watching the race. It might be a slight advantage for Quebec teams being on “˜familiar’ ground’. In fact, we raced one section of the Grand Prix de Beauce just last week on the same course, so we know the track. The key will be in trying to take advantage of it.”