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Canadian James Piccoli wins stage 3 of Tour for All, four days after climbing Montreal’s Mount Royal 100 times for charity

The Israel Start-Up Nation rider has had a big week

Israel Start-Up Nation’s James Piccoli has been doing pretty well in lockdown. From his hometown of Montreal, the 28-year-old jokes that his day-to-day life is relatively isolated already. “I go to train alone all day, then I come home and I’m too tired to hang out with anyone anyways,” he says with a laugh.

Photo: Charles Ouimet/@refinedmoment

On Saturday, the cyclist climbed Montreal’s Mount Royal 100 times as a fundraiser for personal protective equipment (PPE) and, just a few days later on Wednesday morning he took first place on the third stage of the Tour for All.

Tour for All stage 3

Stage 3 of the Tour for All looked like it may come down to a bunch sprint, but at 600m to go Piccoli attacked up the climb using the ‘featherweight’ power-up which reduces weight by 9.5kg for 15 seconds. He put out a hefty 9.5 watts per kg of power for the final 500m of the 72.9km race and crossed the line three seconds before Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ.

Piccoli smiled as he climbed to victory on stage 3 of Tour for All

“I saved a featherweight power-up for the last couple of hundred metres,” said Piccoli post-race. “We knew that it was going to be steep to the line, so I figured if I could hang on the downhill and recovered a little bit and use that for when it counted, with a long sprint, I’d have a good chance.”

Piccoli attributes some of his win to the experience with virtual riding that Israel Start-Up Nation has given him. “We have a lot of experience on Zwift,” he says, “we do some Medical Aid rides and so the whole team has been riding a lot. We’ve came super prepared and it’s nice to get a win, even if it’s a virtual one.” His teammate Freddy Ovett also took first on stage 1 of the Tour for All.

RELATED: Big names use tactical power-ups and sprint to the virtual finish on stage 1 of the Tour for All

His team is now in third place overall with 48 points, behind Groupama-FDJ who have 69 and NTT Pro Cycling with 71 points. NTT have been steadily collecting intermediate sprint points and top 10 finishes, including a win for team member Michael Gogl in stage 2 of the tour.

A $20,000 donation

“I’m lucky to be somewhere where we can ride outside, so I’ve been training well and having fun. I’m really excited to get back racing if it happens,” said Piccoli after his win.

His outdoor riding had included a huge fundraising event. A cycling friend, Michael Pinto, the VP of operations at Groupe Laudie, a Montreal biodegradable cleaning products company, originally suggested the idea to Piccoli—raise money for PPE by doing a massive ride.

Groupe Laudie kicked off the fundraiser by donating 1000 disposable 3 ply masks, 100 KN95 masks and other disinfectant supplies to hospitals, retirement homes and homeless shelters. All funds raised will go towards buying further medical supplies. “Our original goal was $3,000, we’re now at over $20,000,” says Piccoli. “I’m blown away by the response we got. It’s unbelievable! It goes to show that nurses and doctors are really appreciated and that people understand the need for safety.”

Piccoli’s girlfriend is a pediatric nurse and works 12 hour shifts. “I remember one of the first few times I dropped her off at work, I did a long training day and I got home and she was still working,” says Piccoli. “She does this all the time, it really gave me an appreciation for how hard doctors and nurses work.”

Photo: Charles Ouimet/@refinedmoment

“If I can ride my bike all day and it does some good, that’s awesome,” he says. He decided to make his challenge 100 laps of one of his favourite Montreal climbs, voie Camillien Houde.

100 times Camillien Houde

Piccoli has the KOM on ‘Montee Camilien Houde’ (there’s a misspelling in the segment, there are two ‘L’s in Camillien), the segment he rode 100 times on May 2. Even before his big ride, the climb had been a staple on his training rides—he says he’s done it 2-3 thousand times.

 

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On the day of the ride he woke up at 3:00 a.m. and headed over to Mount Royal. “It was the nicest day of the year so far,” he says. “Normally the only cyclists I see riding on Camillien Houde are people training on road bikes but on Saturday it was families, kids, people on hybrids—everybody was outside.”

Piccoli went into the ride with a relaxed plan. He didn’t want to ride in the dark for very long so he aimed to finish the ride in about 15 hours. Every 10-15 laps he would give himself a small break and refuel at his car that he stocked full of nutrition. About halfway through the ride he was feeling pretty good and pushed a bit quicker than he expected, so he rewarded himself with slightly longer breaks, taking 10 minutes to refuel and take a little breather.

L’imprévisible

As the day went on the climbs got a bit harder. “Laps 75-90 were pretty rough,” says Piccoli.

Photo: Charles Ouimet/@refinedmoment

The street he was riding is ironically named after four-time Montreal mayor Camillien Houde, who was long opposed to building roads over the city’s famous mountain. Houde, who is buried on the other side of Mount Royal in an Italian marble replica of Napoleon’s tomb, was nicknamed “l’imprévisible“—the unpredictable.

There wasn’t much unpredictable about Piccoli’s ride. “I joke that I’ve named every blade of grass on that segment,” he says. But there was one aspect he hadn’t anticipated, “laps 90-100 I got a second wind and realized that the day had gone by pretty quickly. I saw such a beautiful sunset and so many people who I had never met before came and cheered.”

Photo: Charles Ouimet/@refinedmoment

He finished the ride at 9:30 p.m. clocking in 322.4 km, 14 hours and 35 minutes of moving time with a weighted average power of 267 watts and 12,605 m of elevation (almost 1.5 Everests). “It was definitely among the coolest days I’ve ever had on my bike,” says Piccoli. “I pushed my physical limits and expected to be more tired, but I got so much motivation from people cheering me on and thinking about the fundraiser and the people it will help.”