Eighth time is the charm for Leah Kirchmann at Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau 2017

The eighth time was the charm for Leah Kirchmann who sprinted to her first victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau on Saturday. Kirchmann’s Team Canada teammate Kirsti Lay crossed the line second after a perfect lead out to give Canada the one-two in the 104.4 km UCI WE 1.1 race in Gatineau Park. Kendall Ryan (U.S./Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank) rounded out the podium in third.

“It’s my eighth time doing this race so it’s so nice to have finally won it and I really enjoyed the day,” a smiling Kirchmann covered in champagne said after the podium ceremony.

The eighth edition of the GP Gatineau took place under sunny skies with the day warming up and only a light wind. The race started with two laps in Gatineau Park before hitting an urban circuit for five 9.4 km laps. In the park, two riders escaped the peloton with Emily Marcolini (Can/Highgate Racing) and Emily Flynn (Can/Cyclery-4iiii) getting a maximum gap of 25 seconds before the first climb up Fortune.

Flynn was put under pressure on the climb and caught. Marcolini almost made it to the top but the Team Canada lead peloton kept the race in check. Canada was doing everything it could to make the race hard on the hill laps in the park.

“Our plan going into the race was see if we could make it aggressive and hard to force a selection in the park, especially over the Camp Fortune climb,” Kirchmann explained about Team Canada’s tactics.

However, their plans had to change on the fly when Leah Kirchmann suffered a mechanical at the base of the Fortune climb.

“At the base of the climb, my derailleur exploded everywhere, so we really had to change our plans at that point,” said Kirchmann with a laugh.

Forced to chase back on with the help of a teammate, she was able to easily make contact with the peloton by the time the race hit the 9.4 km finishing circuit.

Heading down the descent out of the park, there were a few accelerations from the likes of SAS-Macogep and Rise Racing but no move would stick. The race entered the circuit altogether with the peloton racing fast and a few accelerations but nothing able stick.

After two laps on the circuit, Australian Lucy Bechtel (Fearless Femme Racing) briefly held a 38-second gap on the peloton but her solo escape did not last long. The teams were racing for a sprint.

On the last lap, Steph Roorda (Sho-Air Twenty20) put in a strong solo attack but heading into the finishing straight the race again was once again back together.

Kirchmann got a strong leadout from Lay and launched her sprint with 100 m to go. She crossed the line by a comfortable margin ahead of Lay. Ryan, who had been tucked behind Joëlle Numainville (Équipe du Québec) who finished second in the races last two editions, came around to take third.

Kirchmann next heads to the Energy Women’s Tour of Britain with her Team Sunweb before returning to Canada for nationals at the end of June.