Road Race

The road course was a 10 km loop beginning on the waterfront and running back through downtown Summerside. The women did 8 laps, and the men 12. The route is basically flat and some sections can be quite windy. On a hilly course, stronger climbers need only push the pace to eliminate most of the starters from contention; but on this sort of course, drafting allows weaker riders to keep pace with stronger ones, forcing racers to employ strategy and team tactics in order to triumph.

In the men's road race, the peloton had hardly left the start line when Justin Theriault broke away with a small group. The peloton chased and reabsorbed them after a few laps. A few short minutes later, another break formed and Theriault jumped into that one too. The group consisted of him, NB's Jean-Richard Cormier, as well as 2 Nova Scotians, an Islander, and an Ontario rider. The crowd went wild as Maritime riders led the race at home. Now, a peloton can normally bring back a breakaway group if it wants to, just by virtue of having more riders to share the work at the front to break the wind. But sometimes the composition of a break will be such that few teams are motivated to chase it, and teams in the peloton will look to one another to do the work to bring it back and the pursuit will not run smoothly, and miscalculations happen. So sometimes a breakaway lasts to the finish. Even when it does not, the teams of the breakaway riders will be tucked into the peloton out of the wind while others chase, so their legs will be fresh to counterattack or contest a sprint finish should the break be caught. The Maritime break turned out to be the "break of the day." The group rode off the front for more than 100 km while the ecstatic crowd cheered them on. They had nearly 4 minutes advantage on the peloton at one point, and were reinvigorated late in the race when the winner of the ITT bridged up. But Quebec was not represented in the break and chased hard, and after more than 100 km, the peloton caught our heroes with only 8 km to go. It was a brilliant effort and a great day of racing.

While some of the New Brunswick men have raced on teams and abroad, the women's team is less experienced. For most, Games was a first taste of racing at this level. The women suffered a bit of bad luck in the road race, losing contact with the peloton after an early crash. That's racing sometimes, and ignoring their road rash, they gamely got back on their bikes, regrouped, and worked together to finish the race. What they may lack in experience, they more than make up for in tenacity.




Justin Theriault leads the breakaway.
















Team Quebec leads the peloton in the chase.















NB, NS, and PEI team cars follow the breakaway to provide technical support and nutrition if needed.

Team NB manager Chris Martin offers Jean-Richard and Justin a bottle as breakaway moves through the feed zone.

The women prepare to start.





















Emily Nickerson works hard to chase back onto the pack after crashing.













Liz Russell holds onto her cables for an aero position.















Team New Brunswick Results:

23 Stuart Wight
24 Jean-Richard Cormier
36 Justin Theriault
38 Patrick Mulherin
54 Denis Hebert

32 Jessica Dahn
37 Elizabeth Russell
38 Emily Nickerson
39 Julia Cormier

Full results: men's and women's