Tuft wins national road race title

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Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEDGE) claimed the Canadian national road race with an audacious solo break lasting over 100 kilometres. It was the second win for the Orica GreenEdge rider in a week after he had won the national time trial championships. Ryan Roth led home the chase in the road race to claim second with Tuft’s trade teammate Christian Meier in third place.

"I was definitely questioning myself going that early," said Tuft, according to ctvnews.ca.

"The thing is Christian (Meier) and I were in the group, but that group was all the strongest guys in the race."

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"We couldn't ride together and let it be decided in the last few climbs. We had to keep attacking, to shake up the race. If you come down with the strongest guys in the race, you wouldn't have your work done yet."

After a fast start to the race that saw the field split, Tuft jumped clear. The time trial expert then steadily built up a lead of over three minutes on the remnants of the field over the finishing race circuit. Behind Tuft, Meier patrolled the front of the chase in a bid to discourage any counter attacks.

With 30 kilometres remaining Tuft still had a healthy advantage and despite a counter attack that included Meier, Roth and eventual fourth place Michael Woods, the Orica rider held on for a famous victory.

"Coming down the stretch, I was hurting for sure. Eventually, you have a whole bunch of guys chasing, you're going to hit the wall. With the heat, the wind ... It all takes its toll. I was suffering. I knew my limit and stayed as close as I could to come home as strong as I could, which wasn't very strong at all," he told ctvnews.ca.

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