Shelley Olds wins Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau road race
Tibco to the Top rider edges out Numainville in final sprint
U.S. rider Shelley Olds of Tibco to the Top won the final bunch sprint of the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau road race on Saturday. She came in ahead of Joelle Numainville (Canada/Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Katarzyna Pawlowska (Poland/GSD Gestion Kallisto), who finished second and third respectively. Olds’s team dominated the final lap and featured two other riders in the final top 10.
The race was pretty quiet for the first five laps of the 10.8 km circuit, as the bunch rode under a clear sky over the roads of Gatineau, Que., just across the Ottawa River from the nation’s capital. The riders paced themselves for the 113 km they’d have to ride. There were a few attempts for form breakaways but nothing stuck. Evelyne Gagnon (Canada/Stevens Racing powered by the Cyclery) went on a flyer that got about 20 seconds ahead of the peloton, but was reeled in. Melanie Spath (Ireland/Tibco to the Top) animated things at the start of the fourth lap. She passed the start/finish line taking the first sprint bonus of $50.
At the start of the sixth lap, Stephanie Roorda (Canada/GSD Gestion Kallisto) launched out from the bunch. Her gap got up to about half a minute. Â In the closing kilometres of the sixth lap, Lex Albrecht (Canada/Team Canada) joined the lone breakaway rider. Team Canada, which didn’t have the same firepower in the sprints as Optum, Tibco or Colavita/Fine Cooking, had made breakaways a priority. The pair worked away, keeping their lead. Roorda took the second sprint bonus at the start of the eighth lap.
On the ninth lap, Albrecht got some help. Her teammate, Veronique Fortin, broke away from the peloton and bridged up to the breakaway. The trio got the gap to a minute at one point. Back at the pack, the sprinters’ teams organized to bring the escapees in. Numainville admitted after the race that the breakaway had her nervous.
“It was a bit stressful,” Numainville said. “But my team had it under control.”
The trio were even away at the final sprint bonus, which Albrecht took as part of her work and rewards sharing with Roorda. But, just before the start of the final lap, all three were caught. With a little more than 10 km to go, Tibco and Optum kicked up their efforts.
“It was basically one big lead-out for the last lap really,” said Rushlee Buchanan (New Zealand/Tibco to the Top). “It pretty much went perfect.”
“It was,” agreed Olds, the race winner. “Chantal Blaak did almost the whole last lap on the front. Everybody executed our plan today perfectly. I never would have made it to the finish line without them. I have my whole team to thank.”
The Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau road race marked Olds’s first visit to Canada. Third place finisher, Pawlowska, arrived in Canada for the first time Thursday.
“For me, the race was difficult because it was only my second day in Canada,” Pawlowska said. “In Poland, it’s late now. But I’m happy. My teammates and I did some good work.”
The Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau is a UCI WE 1.1 event, which means Olds takes 60 points for the win. Numainville gets 45 UCI points and Pawlowska, 35. For Monday’s time trial event, the same points will be up for grabs.
Top 10
1 Â Shelley Olds (USA/Tibco to the Top)
2 Joelle Numainville (Canada/Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies)
3 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Poland/GSD Gestion Kallisto)
4 Lauren Hall (USA/Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies)
5 Laura Brown (Canada/Colavita/Fine Cooking)
6 Lenore Pipes (Guam/West Quebec Wheelers)
7 Chantal Blaak (Netherlands/Tibco to the Top)
8 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand/Tibco to the Top)
9 Lindsay Bayer (USA/Colavita/Fine Cooking)
10 Morgan Patton (USA/MVP Health Care)
Related
Live coverage replay of the 2013 Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau road race
Laura Brown: From pack-fill to podiums
Q & A with national team coach Denise Kelly
Lex Albrecht looks ahead to the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau
