After missing the Canadian road championships last year, Orica-GreenEdge's Sven Tuft returned to capture his ninth time trial title on Thursday in Lac-Mégantic, Québec. The Langley, BC native won the elite men's 40.4km course in 53:25, besting his nearest competitors, runner-up Hugo Houle (Ag2r La Mondiale) by 2:04 and third placed Ryan Roth (Silber Pro Cycling) by 2:21 minutes.
Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies' Leah Kirchmann secured a head-turning win at the Canadian time trial championships. She muscled her way along the elite women's 28.8km course in 43:28 minutes beating track team pursuit specialist Jasmin Glaesser (Tibco-To The Top) by two seconds and her teammate Anika Todd by 1:01 minutes.
Last year, Kirchmann won the national criterium title and had been her American-based trade team's designated sprinter for much of the season. This year, she showed her capabilities as an all-rounder and a time trialist after spending two days in the leader's jersey at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, where she took two stage wins and a second place in the stage 2 Big Bear time trial. She also won the prologue at the Tuscon Bicycle Classic and placed second at the UCI 1.1 Chrono Gatineau.
Question marks over future of Spanish ProTeam beyond the end of this season remain, raising prospect that the Malaysian race could be the last tour for the long running squad
