Gallery: Aggressive weather and racing in elite and under-23 men’s Canadian championship road race

Bruno Langlois chats with Ryan Anderson and Antoine Duchesne at the 2017 Canadian championships. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

The peloton averaged 48.1 kph on the first lap. Photo: Ivan Rupes

It was sunny for the beginning of the race. Photo: Ivan Rupes

Dark clouds were on the horizon. Photo: Ivan Rupes

Soon the road was wet as rain started to come down. Photo: Ivan Rupes

Then it started to pour. Photo: Ivan Rupes

When thunder cracked in the sky and lightening could be seen the race was neutralised. Photo: Ivan Rupes

Riders who had just been racing full gas were now trying to stay in good spirits. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

The race resumed with 110 km to go. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

And the racing heated up right away. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Edward Walsh at Canadian nationals in 2017.

Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Svein Tuft tried to split the field but his powerful accelerations only whittled down the field. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Matteo Dal-Cin was extremely active all race. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

The second storm hit and the peloton was further reduced. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Tuft once again tried to get away. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Tuft's accelerations certainly hurt. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Marc-Antoine Soucy and Matteo Dal-Cin at Canadian nationals. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Dal-Cin was a popular winner. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Photo: Philippe Tremblay

Soucy took second and the U23 title while Pier-André Coté took third winning the bunch sprint. Photo: Philippe Tremblay

After 160 km of aggressive racing Matteo Dal-Cin took an emphatic win to take home the Canadian championships road title. The Ottawa-native’s victory was punctuated by torrential rain during two storms that passed over the course, one of which forced the neutralization of the race for 10 minutes because of lightning.

“It was a crazy day out there,” Dal-Cin said following the race, “from sun to rain, to sun and then back to rain. But I don’t really care at this point, I’m just over the moon.”

Dal-Cin made the winning move with Marc-Antoine Soucy with less than 20 km of racing to go. The pair got a gap that quickly inflated as the chase behind from the peloton was disorganized. “To be honest, I don’t even know how it happened,” Dal-Cin said about the race winning move. “We just ended up out there with a lap and a half to go, and we just rolled really well together and duked it out in the sprint.”

Dal-Cin knew from the start that to win the title he needed to race aggressively as he did in Gila and Beauce where he took UCI wins earlier in the season. Last year, on the same course, Dal-Cin crashed going full stem leading the race into the final corner opening the door for Bruno Langlois to take the victory.

“I definitely didn’t hot rod the corner this year. I waited until we were free and clear of it before I started my sprint,” Dal-Cin said. “It’s pretty amazing. There are just so many friends and family here.”