The 2015 Pan Am Games men’s road race a battle to the finish — and despite a bronze medal sprint finish, a profound disappointment for Guillaume Boivin

Throughout Saturday’s men’s road race at the 2015 Pan Am Games, it was anyone’s game. Happily, the weather that cast a pall over the beginning of the women’s road race earlier in the day also failed to materialize, leaving riders only to contend with continuing high heat and heavy humidity. But that’s not to say that it wasn’t a wild, all-over-the-place competition, even from the very first lap.

By the end, with fortunes shifting multiple times throughout the race, Venezuela’s Miguel Ubeto placed first, followed by Eric Marcotte in second and Canada’s Guillaume Boivin in third, adding another bronze to the host country’s count.

Finishing in the same time — 3:46:26 — Argentina’s Mauro Richeze finished fourth.

The four finished with a thirty second gap on the rest of the peloton, with Marcotte attacking close to the race’s conclusion. The American rider missed the win by only six inches, taking silver with a finish that nonetheless left him “stoked,” but after 10 laps — the circuit was the same 16.5 km route along Toronto’s Lakeshore Boulevard and through High Park as the women’s race earlier in the day, only doubled — it was a nonetheless decisive finish. In all, the men’s race totaled 165 km.

Early in the race, the Colborne Lodge descent in High Park saw both Mexico and Costa Rica with riders off the front, fulfilling a prophecy from earlier in the day by Team Canada brass that South and Central American countries, knowing that this is home soil for Canadian riders, would put be putting a bullseye on the Maple Leaf. Canada kept up the pressure, though, with Sean MacKinnon passing Argentina’s Mauro Richeze as they tried to catch that break. Other Canadian riders also held forward positions in the pack, including Canada’s Hugo Houle, who took gold in the men’s individual time trial on July 22.

Guillaume Boivin was also a part of Canada’s who’s-who for the race, one he joked with Canadian Cycling Magazine as being his “first and last” event at the Pan Am Games. At the end of the first lap, he and other riders had completed the first run of the men’s road race with an average of 22:44 seconds, moving at approximately 46 km/h.

By the next climb up Olympus into High Park, Mexico’s riders were starting to turn up the pressure, with a jump of a few seconds on the peloton. On Lakeshore, meanwhile, an 11-rider break was in progress, with Mexico’s Ignacio Sarabia Diaz in front and Canada’s Boivin contributing. But before long, the pack was back together as attacks pulled that break back into the fold. That dynamic would continue throughout the race, with race radio eventually describing the competition as “all over the place,” reports said.

Before the race, Boivin predicted as much. “I mean, it’s one of those races that’s really hard to control,” he said. “We only have four guys, and that’s the most any country can have. You just have to be really aggressive and try to find a combination at the front that you like, that you’re comfortable with. You really have to know your opponents very well and their strengths. Just race aggressive and make sure you have the numbers up the road.”

At the top of that Olympus climb, with Marcotte making a break and a group chasing to catch up, the race began to fulfill Boivin’s prophecy somewhat.

Breakaways shifted, starting with 15 second leads, then down to 10, then finally down to 5. A second chase group eventually emerged, with Sean Mackinnon in that bunch, building a 10 second lead of its own. The main group, meanwhile, was beginning to fragment, its riders blowing apart as the race turned once again into High Park. The hard 12% grades of the Olympus climb started to take their toll, with Mackinnon off the back, sitting up and looking drained. By the next loop through High Park, the peloton was once again all together.

That back-and-forth continued until the race’s concluding kilometres, with several riders dropped. And despite the cheers that met Boivin’s reception of his bronze medal, the Canadian rider’s disappointment with his finish was palpable and clearly deep.

“I’m disappointed I let the guys down; they did awesome work all day,” he said. “My job was supposed to be to close the deal, and the sprint maybe cost me first place. It’s tough right now. I guess maybe when I take a step back I’ll be able to enjoy it a bit, but [it’s] a bit of a disappointing final there.”

From Boivin’s account, the race was a challenge in its final stretch. “I was just trying to find a place to get out and sprint,” he said. “I thought there was a bit of space to go in between the guys, but then the gap closed with 50 metres and I had to pull the brakes again, so… yeah, braking three or four times in the last 150 metres is not the way to win a bike race.”

“The plan was to have a shot at winning and I only have myself to blame for that,” Boivin lamented.