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Italian and Danish Junior road race gold at Doha 2016

All four Junior Canadian women in field sprint, Coles-Lyster 14th

October 14, 2016
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Italian Elisa Balsamo outsprinted her Junior women rivals for the first Italian gold in the Doha 2016 UCI road world championships in Qatar on Friday. In the Junior men’s race Dane Jakob Egholm took a strong solo win.


Junior women started early with four laps of the 15.2-km Pearl course and almost immediately there was a crash, with Canadian Maggie Coles-Lyster and a Polish rider coming to grief.


With the early chaos, a lot of riders got dropped and a large escape dashed away only to be brought back. Several more attacks in the first two laps only streamlined the peloton further. All four Canadians were accounted for.

Teams USA and Germany did the yeoman’s job of leading the group until the final lap when Italy took over. Balsamo’s lead out from Team Italy was text book and her kick was considerable. She had plenty of time to celebrate before the line. The Italian stayed ahead of American Skylar Schneider, fourth in the time trial, and Norwegian Susanne Anderson.

Maggie Coles-Lyster recovered well from her early crash to take 14th, and all the Canadians finished in the leading bunch, occupying spots in the top-39.

The Italians exuberantly belted out the national anthem.


The Junior men had nine laps of the Pearl to negotiate for a total of 135.3-km. Three riders got away on the second lap but were hauled back by Lap 3. More attacks flared out but were lassoed. With three laps to go the new time trial champion, American Brandon McNulty, scampered away with two others.

McNulty’s group swelled to 19 riders with two laps remaining and its gap was 1:00 with 22-km to go. Forty-seconds lead was retained as the bell lap began. Egholm and compatriot Julius Johanson then bolted with 9-km remaining.


Egholm went solo with 6-km to go, with Johanson and French rider Alexys Brunel his closest chasers. The chasers were swept up by a small field but no one would bring back the Dane. The best of the rest was German Niklas Märkl. Switzerland earned its first medal of Doha 2016 with Reto Muller taking bronze.


Eghlom’s teammate Mikkel Bjerg took the silver in the time trial earlier this week.

Top Canadian was Thierry Kirouac-Marcassa in 30th. He was the only Canadian to finish; one teammate did not start on Friday.

Saturday is the elite women’s road race.

Doha 2016 Road World Championships Junior women’s road race 74.5-km
Gold: Elisa Balsamo (Italy) 1:53:04
Silver: Skylar Schneider (USA) s.t.
Bronze: Susanne Anderson (Norway) s.t.
14) Maggie Coles-Lyster (Canada) s.t.
24) Devaney Collier (Canada) s.t.
31) Erin Attwell (Canada) s.t.
39) Laurie Jussaume (Canada) s.t.

Doha 2016 Road World Championships Junior men’s road race 135.3-km
Gold: Jakob Egholm (Denmark) 2:58:19
Silver: Niklas Märkl (Germany) +0:07
Bronze: Reto Muller (Switzerland) s.t.
30) Thierry Kirouac-Marcassa (Canada) +1:45