Roth secures maple-leaf jersey after winning Canadian time trial championship

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Neither of Canada's time trial champions were able to retain their titles on Tuesday, at the Canadian Road National Championships as Ryan Roth (Silber) won his first maple leaf jersey. The out-and-back course took the riders through the Gatineau national park outside of Ottawa, opening with a long rolling climb to the turnaround point and then a fast descent back to the finish.

In the men's race, it was expected to be a battle between nine-time champion Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge) and defending champion Hugo Houle
(AG2R la Mondiale). Tuft did set the first sub-50 minute time, at 48:35.92, a time that held up until Roth's team mate, Alex Cataford, the 2015 U23 champion, knocked 0.46 seconds off with five riders to go.  Roth was the second last rider to go, and smashed the leading time by nearly 20 seconds, and Houle could only manage fourth, 47.61 seconds down.

"I've been second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth ... so it's cool to finally get the win," agreed Roth. "You have to have a specific strategy for a course like this, and I tried to go as hard as I could on the climb and hope that I had something left for the return. Winning Time Trial Nationals is special because you have the jersey for the whole year following."

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