Léandre Bouchard repeats at Traversée du Lac-Saint-Jean
Laurence Lévesque repeats as women's winner at grueling fat bike race in Northern Quebec
Canadian Olympic cross country racer Léandre Bouchard has won the Traversée du Lac-Saint-Jean fat bike race for the second straight year. The Women’s race was won by Laurance Lévesque.
The title defense was far from easy, though. Tough race conditions greeted racers trying to make their way across frozen expance of Lac-Saint-Jean to Roberval. It took the Alma, Que. rider a full two hours ten minutes to complete the 35 km course and win back-to-back Traversée editions. His time last year? One hour 25 minutes.
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Only 56 of 102 starter finished the race, due to especially difficult conditions on race day. Antoine Gariépy finished second, eight minutes behind Bouchard. Marc-Antoine Tremblay crossed the line third.
The grueling event in Northern Quebec is Bouchard’s first win since joining the Pivot Cycles-OTE mountain bike team, and comes aboard the brands Les Fat bike.
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Laurence Lévesque won the women’s Traversée du Lac-Saint-Jean, also repeating her victory from 2018. Lévesque was pushed right to the finish, it appears, finishing only 30 seconds ahead of second place finisher Alexandra Tremblay. Caroline Boyaud finished third. To repeat as the fastest across Lac-Saint-Jean, Lévesque rode a time of 3 hours 35 minutes 32 seconds, with Tremblay finishing inside the same minute.
