Grand Prix Cycliste de Rimouski

Today's race was the Grand Prix cycliste de Rimouski. It is the only UCI - 1.1 sanctioned event for junior women in North America and is held prior to the Tour de la relève internationale de Rimouski. 

The GP de Rimouski official race report can be viewed here. 

Anyways, we were up by 6am for breakfast. Our bikes are being held at a hockey arena under security, so we headed to the arena by 7:30am, got our race wheels on, numbers pinned etc etc and rode to the start line right at 8. Rick put us on the rollers for 15 minutes, then we went up and road 2km from the start line to ride the last turn that opens up onto the finishing stretch. It's easily the longest 2k homestretch I've ever ridden! We then signed in as a team at the start line, completed rollout with the UCI officials and sat for about 15 minutes waiting for the 9am start.

Top 10 results

And finally it was 9am! We rolled out and within 3km we hit the first wall of a climb. Lucky for us, Rick and Lloyd drove us around the course last night and I made lots of notes on the tech guide, so I was familiar with the course. It's an 80km HILLY route with the majority of the climbing taking place between 20km and 60km, with a kicker right at 5k to go. A perfect course for a Vermont, eh?

Earlier on in the race when we were still together.
The Canadian National Road Champ, Ariane Bonhomme is on the far right.
I ended up putting 4+ minutes on her, and Maddy put nearly just as much. Just sayin'...

Anyways, a lot of girls made silly accelerations at the beginning on some of the rollers, but of course nothing went. At 20km finally the climbing began. I had shifting issues, so I literally went from the front of the pack to the rear while this year's Canadian Road Champion, Arian Bonhomme, attacked off the front. Finally when things started working again I accelerated from the rear of the pack up to the front where my teammate, Madelein McConnel was, and we both counter attacked to bridge up to Arian. We put the hurt to everyone. Eventually, we closed the gap, but Arian was then so wasted from her efforts that we couldn't maintain the break. The pack of 10 that had survived the first climb caught us, and I sat in (frustrated!) only to attack again 5km later on a grindy climb. Finally I got away with my CHCH teammate Madelein and another Canadian rider, Josiane Lessard. I knew this was going to be a good break, because Maddie is one hell of a climber, and I hoped our teammates were somewhere behind us trying to control the pack. 

Coach Rick, Jenna, me, Madelein, Saskia and Coach Lloyd at the team tent after the GP de Rimouski

Coach Rick and Coach Lloyd – two of the greatest guys you will ever meet.
Their support and expertise has been really tremendous so far. I'm one lucky girl! 

We ended up putting nearly 3 minutes on the pack. I did lots of pulling with Maddie, and Josiane wasn't quite doing her fair share...but in the end that got her! With 8km to go on one of the last grindy climbs Josiane and I were climbing neck and neck (Madelein had dropped off but continued to ride hard!) and at the very top where the climb hurt the most I just stood up and attacked. I remembered Rick saying that this was the last part of the course to really get away for a solo win, so knowing that it was my last chance, I just hit it as hard as I could.

Josiane Lessard leads up one of the climbs.

Getting ready to attack with 5km to go

Getting ready to launch that attack at 5km...

...And the gap began to grow. I passed the 5km sign and I just kept my head down. Occasionally I would look back to see if the gap was growing, and indeed it was. But I didn't want to get too comfortable, so I still was riding hard. I opened up the gap to about 20 seconds. Motorcycle officials, and UCI cars kept driving up and down the road honking horns (to give a heads up they'd be passing me) and giving time splits.  

I came into the finishing stretch with several police cars leading me with their lights on...it was crazy! 1km to go...500m to go...200m to go and I threw my hands up and just yelled as I crossed the finish line in first! I couldn't believe it. I crossed the finish line with a 12 second gap in front of Josiane Lessard, and Madelein came in 1.3 minutes behind us. Two CHCH girls on the podium!

GP Podium

"I won, I won! Now I don't have to go to school!" -Eddy Merckx after winning his first bike race.
Here I am after awards, with my GP trophy and medal. 

Podium with the race officials/organizers.

This is a huge result. This is basically the biggest Jr. Women's race in the world besides the World Championships. The CC races are Continental Championships, which are lower than Cat 1.1 and the only other 1.1 race is a TT in France after Worlds. My fingers are crossed that something big will become of this win.

If there is one thing I do know, it's that I couldn't have done it without my teammates. I'm excited to continue the racing in the Tour de la relève internationale de Rimouski with such talented girls. 5 more days of hard racing! Let's see what Team CHCH can do.


Thanks for all of my sponsors and the KMS team back home for giving me the opportunity to race in Canada!