TRIATHLETE PAULA FINDLAY & OLYMPIAN DEREK GEE WIN TIME TRIAL TITLES ON DAY 1 OF THE CANADIAN ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Edmonton, AB (June 24, 2022) – The 2022 Canadian Road Championships kicked off on Thursday with the Time Trial races for Para, Junior, U23 & Elite categories, where athletes completed distances ranging from 12 to 48 kilometers. With most defending champions absent or moving on to new categories, several titles were up for grabs and only four athletes managed to hold on to their previous national titles.

The 16km circuit located in Beaumont, on the outskirts of Edmonton, was mostly flat but came with its own set of challenges, including tight turns and longer distances. Harsh weather also settled in for the Elite races at the end of the day, with wind, rain and cold representing an additional challenge for riders. Israel Cycling Academy’s Derek Gee completed the 48km course with a time of 58:18.9 to claim gold, almost one minute ahead of Matteo Dal-Cin (Toronto Hustle) and Pier-André Côté (Human Powered Health). Tristan Jussaume (Équipe du Québec) finished with the fourth fastest time, earning him the U23 title for the second year in a row.

“It’s kind of nice, when it’s raining that hard and it’s that cold, you feel the legs a little less,” said Gee. “I got COVID about two months ago and it has been a long road back. The power I put out today, I was failing 10 minutes at that two weeks ago so it’s really nice to see that it’s come back and it came together today, I couldn’t have asked for a better day. It’s really special to be able to wear the jersey after Hugo [Houle], who I’ll be teammates with next year.”

Defending champion Alison Jackson unfortunately had to pull out of the Elite women’s Time Trial yesterday morning due to illness and was unable to defend her title against a stacked field of Elite and U23 riders. In the end, professional triathlete and Edmonton local Paula Findlay took the win with a time of 44:40.4, followed by Marie-Soleil Blais (Team Farto – BTC) and track star Ngaire Barraclough (The Cyclery Racing), who also won the U23 title.

“Kind of the main reason I did this race is because it’s in Edmonton and I’m from here. It was a lot of fun, a lot different to what I’m used to; I usually race triathlons, so it was cool to go hard and not have to run after,” said Findlay. “I’ve been focusing on this for the last three weeks and doing a lot more high intensity efforts versus what I usually do for triathlon. My strategy was really just to go hard and I knew for time trials it’s just a different mindset you get into than the four hour triathlons that I’m used to. It’s just put your head down, go fast and try to be as aero as possible.”

In the Junior races, Campbell Parish (Red Truck Racing/Cycling BC) and Pénélope Primeau (Équipe du Québec) set the fastest times to win their first Junior Time Trial titles after both claiming silver last year. Para-cycling competitions saw titles awarded in eight different categories, three of which were won by 2021 Canadian champions Marie-Claude Molnar, Louis-Albert Corriveau Jolin and Lowell Taylor (with pilot Ed Veal).

Saturday, Para athletes from all categories will be competing in the Road Race as of 8:00am, followed by the Junior women at 11:30am and Junior men at 3:30pm. Full results and schedules can be found here.

Results
T1-2 Women: 1- Shelley Gautier 2- Marie-Ève Croteau 3- Thuy Do
T1-2 Men: 1- Louis-Albert Corriveau-Jolin 2- Nathan Clement
H1-2 Men & Women: 1- Matthew Kinnie
H3-5 Women & Men: 1- Alex Hyndman 2- Charles Moreau 3- Joey Desjardins
C1-5 Women: 1- Marie-Claude Molnar 2- Keely Shaw 3- Mel Pemble
C1-5 Men: 1- Alexandre Hayward 2- Piotr Czyzowicz 3- Lachlan Hotchkiss
Tandem Women: 1- Carla Shibley & Meghan Brown
Tandem Men: 1- Lowell Taylor & Ed Veal 2- Daniel Chalifour & Jean-Michel Lachance 3- Benoit Lalumière Cloutier & Maximilien Moreau
Junior Women: 1- Pénélope Primeau 2- Éloise Camire 3- Ava Holmgren
Junior Men: 1- Campbell Parish 2- Carson Mattern 3- Félix Hamel
U23 Women: 1- Ngaire Barraclough 2- Sarah Van Dam 3- Adèle Desgagnés
U23 Men: 1- Tristan Jussaume 2- Francis Juneau 3- Thomas Nadeau
Elite Women: 1- Paula Findlay 2- Marie-Soleil Blais 3- Ngaire Barraclough
Elite Men: 1- Derek Gee 2- Matteo Dal-Cin 3- Pier-André Côté