The Canadian Road Championship titles were decided on Sunday in Edmonton, Alberta, with Nick Zukowsky (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) winning the men's title.
Held in downtown Edmonton, the 10.2-kilometre course featured two descents and climbs each lap, as well as tight and twisty urban streets. The men had a punishing 20 laps - a significant increase from previous years after complaints from European-based pros about the length.
The men's race was hit by a series of crashes in the opening few laps, which splintered the field, and forced riders to chase back on. Besides domestic squads, the peloton contained a significant number of European-based pros, including Giro star Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech), defending champion Pier-Andre Cote (Human Powered Health), the continental champion, with teammates Ben Perry, Charles-Etienne Chretien and Adam de Vos, plus Zukowsky, James Piccoli (China Glory), and Michael Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers).
Zukowsky figured in a number of early moves, all of which were brought back, with Gee trying to bridge a number of times but being heavily marked. Zukowsky finally bridged up to a two-man break with four laps to go after being in a number of earlier efforts, taking under-23 rider Philippe Jacob (Ecoflo Chronos) across with him.
Once at the front, Zukowsky put on a masterful show, pulling the group around for the rest of the race and eventually dropping everyone but Jacob.
The gap was only 15 seconds but then crept out to 25-30 seconds, as the chase could not get organised. Gee tried a number of times to get across, each time reducing the lead to 15 seconds, but it would soon increase again after he stopped his efforts.
On the final climb to the finish, Zukowsky dropped Jacob to solo in for his first national road title, while Jacob held on for second and the under-23 title but at 7:18.
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Quebec riders dominated the standings, taking all top seven places, with Nicolas Rivard (Team Ecoflo Chronos) third.
"I had a few scenarios in my head [having no teammates], but for me, I just go off of instinct," explained Zukowsky.
"I'm generally a pretty aggressive racer, and I was inspired by how [retired pro] Antoine Duchesne raced a few years ago when he took the win on his own. It was quite a tough race today, over 200 kilometres, so for us [the European-based riders], it was pretty good. I knew I had to take advantage of that, even if it was early in the race. I was feeling good, feeling like I'm coming into some good fitness, so I figured I use it."
