New info (just added on 7/27): Just found results online. You have to go to the French page–for some reason they are not posted to English page.
Here’s the link: http://www.tourabitibi.com/resultats_tour.php
This short report is based mostly on what I could learn from other people, as I could only watch the final portion of the race in Val-d’Or (three circuits around the city).
The first person I saw from Borah was Oscar (our team mechanic), who said it had been a busy day—lots of carnage and flats. The roads here are full of debris (gravel, glass, etc.) Fortunately, none of the Borah team crashed. When I saw the main group come into town, Mac Brennan was close to the front and riding strong. I didn’t see some of the Borah riders in the peloton. At first, I wasn’t overly concerned, as it is easy to miss a rider when 150 are zooming by you at speeds in excess of 30 mph, all closely bunched together. When I walked down to the finish line, much to my surpise, I saw Kevin and Tony already standing there with their bikes while the race was still going on—they both flatted, but made the time cutoff. Making the time cutoff is critical, as this meant that they would be able to continue racing. In fact, all six Borah riders will be racing tomorrow.
As to the weather conditions, it had been raining off and on all day. The weather gods smiled on the boys today (perhaps to make up for yesterday) and though it was raining just before the start of the race, the clouds decided to hold their water for a few hours. Wet roads, nonetheless, probably explained many of the flats. Bad luck in that respect. At least, all six riders finished with the rubber side down—even if it was a new rubber side.
This just in: an excerpt from the race report of the Directeur Sportif of Borah. Copied verbatim–many thanks to Larry Martin for this excellent summary of the race.
Preissac is a small little Ville on the northern edge of Lake Preissac which is roughly 25 Km long and 4 KM wide at the widest. The western edge, where we start is very hilly with one peak that offers a scenic view of the Abita region in either direction. This is the first King of the Mountain. We arrive at Priesac at 3:00 and the race doesn’t start until 6:00. The Village always prepares a large picnic lunch for us and opens their doors to the community center which is basically a large hockey arena. The village has built the Hockey arena, a school and a new Library/City Hall/Fire Department since I first started coming up here.
The race starts in front of an old wooden church, goes about 400 yards across a wooden bridge and takes an immediate 90 degree left turn onto the main highway, and I have never seen a crash on this portion of the race. It rained for nearly two hours while we were waiting to leave, but at about 5:30 the sun began to shine and things were looking good for a race.
We had a clean start and were rolling along well when about five kilometers into the race a crash was announced, but that all riders were back on their bikes. This is possibly one of the worst places in all of the stages to have a mishap. The hills start to roll and as the riders slow on the uphill the pack is going 45+ MPH on the downhill and the yoyo effect eventually goes in favor of the peloton. We pass four riders, and then another crash and all riders are up and back into the peloton quickly. We made it to the main highway in good shape although there were at least four flat tires on that section. Once on the main highway the flat tire announcements came regularly on race radio. Then we got the call, Ricky had a flat on his front, when the group was going 35 MPH. He nearly made it back, but a couple of crashes and more flats through the caravan into disarray and he wasn’t able to have a steady flow back to the main group. After another bad crash, he made it through the debris and the cars, but by then the pace to recapture the caravan prevented him from getting back, we caught up with Tony who was caught in the last crash and worked him back into the group.
When we hit the feed zone things settled a bit. Tony called us for a feed so we went up and gave him a couple of bottles, then Kevin called for a bottle and we gave him two. Then there was a big crash where a rider ran into a Semi Trailer truck that had pulled to the side of the road. There were three riders involved and several caught in it. One was Sam, so he was caught way back and would have to ride in with a few others caught in the same position.
Within 2 KM. Kevin flatted and we were back up to change him. We were trying to get him back into a rhythm with the caravan and were called that Tony had a flat, so we raced up to find that Lowell had stopped to help us out with Tony’s wheel.
Now we had four of our riders out of the main group and out of contention. We still had Mac and Colton in with the lead group. With three laps on the circuits the boys were in the big group. With two laps to go Colton had fallen off but Mac was hanging in with them, with one lap to go Mac was still doing well, but in the end he lost a lot of ground on the leaders and Colton finished well back. The others all made it in safe and sound and no one had been injured. Colton is wrestling with some IT band issues and Mac has a sore back from hammering in the drops for 80 km.
They seem to be in good spirits and though not happy with the outcome I’m happy with their performance. The all raced smart, they just had some bad breaks. One of the teams lost four riders, and another lost two. We have all six starting tomorrow and with a bit of luck and better circumstance we may end up with a better result.
Larry