Bruno Langlois claims Canadian elite men’s national road title
37-year-old veteran wins from a break of four riders containing Routley, and Silber teammates Perry and Dal-Cin
Bruno Langlois of Garneau-Quebecor won the 2016 Canadian national road title in a thrilling and aggressive race. A crash in the final corner of the 18 lap, 180-km race took out Ottawa native Matteo Dal-Cin (Silber Pro Cycling), Ben Perry (Silber Pro Cycling) and Will Routley (Rally Cycling). Perry still managed to pick himself up and crossed the line in second place and won his third under-23 national title in a row. Routley ran his bike across the finish line for third place. The race being held in Ottawa was a hot and hard affair with only 18 finishers after the peloton was pulled with 40-km still to race.
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Langlois of Matane, Que. was one of the first riders to attack right off the gun. A day after Annie Foreman-Mackey demonstrated that on the flat 10-km course aggressive racing could pay off Langlois did the same. His first move did not stick but it was an indication of the type of race the 37-year-old intended to ride.
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“I wasn’t expecting anything coming into the race today and I had no pressure,” said Langlois. “From the start I felt I had good legs and I knew it was a race that would happen from the front so as soon I saw that guys were starting to look at each other I attacked and I bridged to the break where I had teammates.”
A breakaway of ten riders formed containing Dal-Cin (Silber), David Boily (Garneau), Travis Samuel (H&R Block), Danick Vandale (H&R Block), Rob Britton (Rally) from the original break. Then Perry (Silber) and Olivier Brisebois (Garneau) bridged. The move Langlois came across with contained Routley (Rally) and Nicholas Masbourian (Silber). The ten riders gap begun to come out as riders continued to jump from the peloton forming small chase groups with no cohesion. Among those looking for help were Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge) and Hugo Houle (AG2R-La Mondiale) who found no allies in the peloton. With Silber, Garneau and H&R Block being some of the biggest teams on the startline there were not many riders willing contribute to the chase.
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Behind a chase formed but the peloton continued to coast and with 40-km to go for the leaders, the peloton was pulled after receiving a warning the lap before.
As the pace ramped up in the front group riders began to drop and a group of four riders eventually formed and quickly gained a gap. Dal-Cin, Routley, Langlois and Perry were set to contest the win. The group relentlessly attacked each other in the final 20-km but stayed together.
Silber entered the race with one of the strongest teams with 10 riders including former national champion Ryan Roth. Perry said, “We played our cards right, we were happy with the front group.”
Dal-Cin lead the group of four into the final corner but the Silber rider lost traction and went down. Routley on his wheel almost managed to stay up but also went down.
Routley who was looking for his second championship title after winning in 2010 said, “I felt comfortable with the corner, I actually kept it up and I was carrying speed but just from cornering so hard I rolled by tire right off the rim.”
On Routley’s wheel was Perry who Dal-Cin was making an effort to leadout but he was caught behind Routley and went tumbling into his teammate. Perry said, “I went into the final corner in the drops just visualizing coming around Routley for the win. I had nowhere to go.”
With three of the four riders down, Langlois was left to ride solo to the finish line and claim a well-deserved title after two podiums in national road races in 2008 and 2010.
“I will say I got lucky because guys crashed but I think I had the legs to deserve the win,” said Langlois. “I judged they went way to fast into the corner and that’s why I eased up a bit.”
Perry claimed the under-23 championship title with Langlois’s teammate Brisebois in second. Perry said that claiming the jersey was a consolation prize but the team came to win the elite title. Masbourian rounded out the u23 podium in third.
On whether he would continue riding next season Langlois answered with a chuckle, “I guess I will have to now.”
