Zach Bell wins national road title

Zach Bell (Champion System) won the elite men’s road title at the Canadian national road championships on the streets of Saint-Georges, Que. on Saturday. The racer from Watson Lake, Yukon, finished the 187-km race in a time of four hours, 13 minutes, 51 seconds.

“It played out really well for me,” said Bell after the race. “The kind of form I have right now, this is the perfect course for me, just selective enough that you know it would come down to a small group.

“You know it’s possible. We’ve got like 20 or 30 guys in Canada that are all riding at a similar level and it’s just a matter of playing your cards right. I think there were a lot of guys that played all the cards they had and I just had the ace up the sleeve.”

Bell out-paced a small breakaway group to the finish line ahead of Ryan Anderson (Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) in second and Antoine Duchesne (Bontrager) in third. Both riders finished with the same time as Bell in a stunning sprint finale.

Duchesne was the only young rider that made it to the finish line with the lead group and won the under-23 title for the second consecutive year.

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All-day breakaway succeeds

Weather leading up to the start was rainy with a heavy blanket of clouds draped over the landscape.
Most of the top riders commented before the race that they hoped for an early selection. Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) was the one to make that happen, attacking less than 20-km into the race. Meier was followed by Michael Woods (Garneau-Quebecor), Ryan Anderson (Optum Pro Cycling), Stuart Wight (New Brunswick) and Will Routley (Accent Jobs-Wanty).

“Once the race started, I thought I’d try to be on the front foot today and be a protagonist instead of always trying to come from behind,” said Meier. “I just went for it straight away, and attacked after one of the first hills and got a good group together and a few more bridged across.”

A chase group made up of Bell, under-23 rider Pierrick Naud (Garneau-Quebecor), Remi Pelletier-Roy (Garneau-Quebecor), Jean Sebastien Perron (Stevens Racing) and Rob Britton (Raleigh) quickly bridged to the lead group and formed the core of the selection that eventually blew apart the race.

“When it got to the right size I knew we had a good chance to stay away because we were all rolling through pretty smooth, and you know it’s pretty hard to chase 12 motivated guys,” said Meier.

Upon reaching the Saint-Odilon circuit 32-km into the race, the lead group was nine riders strong, Woods having dropped back with a flat tire. The peloton was poorly organized behind and the lead riders built an advantage that stretched to over three minutes.

“When they started showing the [time] board, and it was just numbers everywhere on the board, I knew that it was going to be a front group all day,” said Anderson. “Once we started putting the [peloton] a little further back into the three minutes I thought at some point they were probably going to give up from behind.”

While the racers contested obstacles on the circuit, the skies above cleared making for sunny and warming conditions for the rest of the race. Winds picked up on the circuit as well, causing challenges around the course.

Another chase group bridged to the leaders, bumping the group to a total of 12 riders. Dominique Rollin (FDJ) began to collect an active group in the peloton and tried numerous times to chase. Their efforts failed thanks to mechanical problems, and too small a group to catch the leaders.

With the quickening pace of the race, the main peloton disintegrated down to just 16 riders.

During the laps on the circuit, defending champion Ryan Roth (Champion System) eventually pulled out of the race, and watched from the feed zone.

As the race finished the final lap, riders in the lead group started to become more aggressive. The lead group had dwindled to nine riders, including Antoine Duchesne, the only under-23 rider in the bunch, and last year’s under-23 champion.

On the climb leading out of Saint-Odilon, Meier attacked again, riding solo and building a lead of as much as 30 seconds. It appeared that Meier might hold his lead over the final 25-km of the course. Anderson suffered a flat, but was able to get assistance and rejoin the chase group quickly.

In an effort to catch Meier, the chase group splintered, with Bell, Duchesne, Britton and Routley working together.
Over the final 10 kms, largely downhill, Meier was unable to hold off the chase group, and inside the final 5 kms, was nearly dropped.

With 3 kms to go, the riders began to watch each other and attacks came quickly and often. Duchesne attacked, then Routley, and again Meier, with the group coming together before the final corner, setting up Bell to win the sprint.
Britton and Routley finished 4th and 5th, and Meier finished 6th, 13 seconds back from the winner.

“[Christian] definitely tried his hardest,” said Bell. “All the respect for him too, but I knew that was the only card he had and if I could kind of manage the group we’d be able to take care of him.”

Duchesne won the under-23 title ahead of Naud and Wight. “I knew I had to get rid of Pierrick because he’s a fast sprinter, so when Meier attacked at the exit of the circuit, I felt like everyone was just sort of struggling. I just went for it and then got the break,” said Duchesne.

“I knew I was the only under-23 but I was still aiming for the elite title, so I pulled with the guys. I did everything I could, at one time I got away with Rob, we tried, but Zach brought us back. He deserved this win, he was really strong today. By that moment there was no climb left so I knew Zach was the fastest and I just sat on his wheel. I was like ‘I’m not leaving this wheel no matter what.’ And I did the best on my sprint.”

The Canadian national road championships conclude Sunday with the men’s and women’s criterium races in Saint-Georges, Que.

To see how the race unfolded, check out our live coverage replay.