The Canadian National Championships is a short and hilly affair this year, which makes the likes of Boily and Houle, both of RBC, the immediate favourites. Most teams have one rider but RBC have a total of 6 teams, 5 independent riders and then a squad of four. Most of the favourites are from the PT team, with Veilleux of Carlsberg likely to be their only major challenger. only 13 riders in attendance today, with 9 of them RBC.
The break today consists of defending champion Meier of Movistar, Matte as a lone RBC rider, De Vos of Podium Ambition and Boivin from the main RBC squad, ensuring there won't be much chasing done here. Previously the break usually wins these things - will they do so today as well?
It seems so as the break have well over 8 minutes before the halfway point, and rising. the peloton spread across the road, disinterested.
Under 20km to go now and the breakaway has a still-rising advantage of over 12 minutes and they're still working with each other for the time being. Boivin surely the favourite now.
On the last circuit with under 5km to go and Matte doesn't like his chances in a sprint, Meier follows his attack.
De Vos brings it all back together and Boivin definitely in the driving seat now. Also a bit of chaos here as they're about to lap the pack at the foot of this final climb.
Meier opens up the sprint with 900m to go, Matte on his wheel followed by De Vos and Boivin.
He gets a clear gap now and Boivin now opening up with 600m left, is it too late?
Apparently so as Meier is the clear victor here defending his title from last year, the two RBC riders now in a battle for second, Matte has positioning but Boivin can actually sprint.
Matte holds off Boivin for second whilst De Vos is fourth after spending a lot of effort chasing down the earlier move - bit of a waste as with positioning Meier and Matte were the top two anyway. The peloton behind now all abandoning, and who can blame them - the likes of Cataford will be wanting to save energy for the time trial later on.
The time trial today on a flat course has the same 13 riders as before, U23 World Champ Cataford is here for a shot at the title he missed out on last year, back to back Road Race champion Meier won this race in 2014, was third last year and now has another shot at being a double National Champ. Dearden is the defending NC here but will not be defending his title. It'd be a huge upset to see anyone else win other than Cataford and Meier really.
Houle riding for RBC could be on the podium here and is off first, setting the early times for others to be judged against.
Duchesne beats Houle's time by 10 seconds at the first check.
Boily goes one better and edges out Duchesne at the first check.
Meier off the back of yesterday's Road Race win is over a minute ahead of the time of Boily now, only Cataford to come through the first check.
Cataford now dissapoints, coming in 15 seconds short of Meier's time.
Meier at the second check, in fact, catches Boily and is two minutes ahead of everyone else despite the RBC rider actually beating out Duchesne and Houle again.
The U23 World Champion Cataford actually losing another 15 seconds to the Movistar - US Postal rider, giving him a lot of ground to have to make up in the final third.
A surprising amount of fans come out to see the finish despite the rain (mind you they are Canadian) and now in front of them Duchesne is 48 seconds ahead of Houle.
Meier goes under 1h20m, over 3 minutes ahead of Duchesne and it'll take a monster effort from Cataford to deny him the double NC. Behind him Boily is "only" 2 minutes and 55 seconds off his time for a probable third.
A stronger final effort from Cataford but he can't deny Meier an impressive double NC, after winning the 2014 ITT and 2015 RR he's finally put them together.
