The road race was a long, hard, but also annoying road race. We started our 75 km road race. It was 14 laps around this 5 km loop, including a roundabout , that we had to take the long way around (I have no clue why they made us do that). 2 km into the race, Allistair unfortunately crashed, and we were hoping it would be a good day for him. Chris also got in the thick of this crash, so his race was over too. Then, 3 laps into our race, Andrew got a flat, and the neutral support guys took over a minute to change a front wheel! it was surprising for a national event! He tried to chase back on, but couldn't. then, it was Marcus, David, and I. 4 laps into the race, Paul Lynch attack out of the group and I followed him. Right after me, it was Yannick Eckmann, and David Kessler( both 5280 squad) followed me. We got into a break, and 3 km later, we got a 40+ second gap! We were flying! After about those 3 km, I could hold on. I popped off and went back to the field. Eventually, that was the winning break, with Kessler winning the road race.Then, about 5 laps later, there was a crash on the back stretch, and David got in that crash, so his day was done then too! After that group of 3 were up the road and gone, nobody wanted to do any work. with about 5 laps to go, somehow a group of 4 formed up the road, and so, I tried to catch them by attacking out of the group, but couldn't catch them, and nobody would help me catch them at all! It got really annoying! So, it came down to a sprint for 8th place, and I finished up there in 12th, and Marcus finished 21st. It was an okay day for the team, but there was some bad luck with 4 of our guys crashing, or flating, and with me not being able to hold on to the wheel in the breakaway.
--James LaBerge
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