The Other Tour thread: Tour de la Releve, Rimouski Quebec.

[Lister Farrar]

Good luck today to Ethan and Riley at the Tour de la Releve (roughly translates as the Tour of the Next Wave), in Rimouski Quebec. The Tour is one of the biggest u17 stage races in north america, typically contested by the biggest US teams.

It's the first stage today, a 7km team time trial. It's a fast flat course, so, with the lower restricted gear there, their track experience will make it feel like a team pursuit.

Different from previous years, the ttt counts for individual standing as well as the team standing. Also every member of the team will get the team time, even if they're dropped (the time is based on the third rider, so a weaker rider can be dropped without a penalty).

Both Riley and Ethan have strong teams that should do well. Ethan is riding with Devo, and Riley with Team BC (three TAG riders and him.)

Ethan's sister Brenna, one of our coaches, won this stage in 2013, riding for National Cycling Centre Hamilton. Im sure she's given him lots of tips. . And Erin Attwell won the overall u17 title in 2015, also riding for NCCH, a very helpful sister club in Ontario.

The race is at 6 Quebec time, 3 ours, so we should know by the VCL tonight.

Results and details will here: https://tourdelareleve.ca/stages-tour-releve.php

[EricS]

Team BC takes the win with an average speed of 51 km. Not bad for cadets!

[Lister Farrar]

Riley's report coming. He texted that his average rpm was 114 rpm, 137 maximum. 50 x15 gear restriction. Track has been a big part of Riley and Ethan's preparation. Riley has been known to choose a smaller gear than others when the pace of training is less than max, just so he can work on cadence. (The theory is the same as a performance car; higher revs produces more power. But takes neuromuscular training. Otherwise known as 'spin to win'. .

[Lister Farrar]

Ethan's team lost a rider from sickness before even arriving. So with three riders they managed 9 out of 17 teams. Trying to get more info.

Results
http://www.tourdelareleve.ca/resultats-tour-releve.php

[Lister Farrar]

Just in. Riley's team got 1,2,3 today. Riley set up his team mates by drilling on one of the climbs (" I felt amazing on the climbs") Ben got away and got 2 minutes by the finish. Riley and his other teammate Connor broke away also, got caught, Connor went again and got 2nd with about 15-20 seconds gap. Riley then won the bunch sprint. Lotta blue (bc colours) on the podium.

[Lister Farrar]

Report from Ethan:

"Hey guys sorry I didn't post yesterday (wifi is pretty bad here). As most of you know yesterday was the ttt. We came 9 out of 17 about 40 seconds behind Riley's team. But we were pretty happy with that considering we had 3 riders and Quinn was recovering from being sick. Today was the point to point road race, 80km with roughly 2000 meters of elevation most of it in the first 40 to 50km. My plan was to go with the lead group when it split. It started pretty mellow but started speeding up as we got further into the hills slowly shredding people at about 40km on one of the last big hills the peloton really blew up. I made to the front group of 10 riders at this point Riley Conner Ben and 2 other riders were up the road. At 63km in on the final hill I got popped and road in with two other riders roughly 15th."

[Lister Farrar]

Report from Riley.

"Alright point to point road race. It was absolutely brutal. It was fairly chill for the first 20km or so (35km/h on flats) I took the first sprint points super easily pretty much just spun past people seated. Isaac went down soon after which pretty much pulled him from contention. I lead Conor into the first KOM just making sure he was at the front. Ever was expecting the first break to go on that KOM but it didn't happen at all. Everyone stayed together until one of the later climbs where Conor was drilling it on the front and making everyone hurt. I was feeling really good so I took it to the front and put in more of a dig. That caused a big split but no one was willing to keep it going. That's when Ben went, 45 km to go, solo. Me and Conor were jumping wheels but no one seemed to be motivated to bridge. Or no one could. Then with 35 km to go Conor flew up one of the climbs from the back and yelled my name. I jumped to Conor and all hell broke loose. Me and Conor were drilling it at 45-50 km/h the whole time with a whole peloton not letting us go. The peloton was destroyed and down to 10 riders. At 12km to go was the last KOM and I was cramping quite badly. I let Conor go and started dropping back to the chase group not 20sec back. Once the chase saw me dropping back the chase attacked each other and completely destroyed themselves. Only 2 riders caught me and I sat on the back having both Conor and Ben up the road. They slowly brought Conor back and once Conor was within 10 sec I bridged back up to him. We got caught 4 km later with 3 km to go. Me and Conor one two'd the group. Conor got away with a kilometre to go. I jumped wheels and debated bridging to Conor but he didn't have much time and was defiantly slowing. I started my sprint first at 150m to go and gained a 3 second gap. Ben ended up winning it. Conor was 1:51 back and I was 8 seconds behind. The "peloton" (about 11 riders) was 7 minutes behind Ben I think.
Ben is the leader of the KOM, the sprint and yellow. I am sitting second in the sprint classification one point behind, third in the GC and forth is the KOM (climb pretty well for a short fat kid)."

[EricS]

[Lister Farrar]

Riley texted he was 6th in the 15 km tt. 30 s behind Ben, 24 behind Connor. He's not that happy with it, but he was 56 seconds back from Ben at provincials. So a big improvement. Well done Riley.

Will post when I hear from Ethan.

[Lister Farrar]

Ethan about 30th, 23:00. He's not that happy either, despite being easily in the top half. These kids are too tough on themselves.

"Competition is a good servant, but a poor master."
(Canadiansportforlife.ca)