Welcome to Canada for a short climbing challenge which will decide the national champion! Boily surely the name on fan's lips as the nations best climber, but Hughes isn't far behind and being on a Canadian PT team means he has much more support. The Goldcorp duo of Britton and Salas will also be a threat to win if they can coordinate their efforts, while Meier may also pose an outside threat.
A few amateurs go up the road, but RBC seem pretty keen to set a harsh pace on the front, using their numbers advantage to try to control the race.
With 25km left this pace is enough to split the pack, 11 riders get a gap off the front and Hughes is missing! A couple of RBC riders who could've made it into this group even sat up to wait for him but he's really far back in the pack. The guys to make it in are:
The RBC riders bring most the missing pros back though, only Boivin is missing from this group with 22km left.
The pace is really hard in this group and riders are being shed pretty quickly, especially now as Hughes takes up the lead. As they pass under the 10km banner, there's only 7 riders left:
Hughes, Cataford Boily De Vos Piccoli Salas, Britton
No surprise what happens when Boily takes the lead with 6km left, Hughes is the only one who can hold on. The two best are looking to fight it out one-on-one!
Neither wants to attack though, just both of them riding a solid tempo to distance the others, as both must back themselves in a sprint! Final Kilometre.
Boily clearly the superior sprinter though, as Hughes tries to come past he finds he really does not have the legs, dropping back behind his compatriot.
David Boily wins the Canadian National Championships! Clinical victory by him, not wasting any energy. Hughes in 2nd had to attack if he wanted to win and clearly couldn't, not a bad performance by him though and clearly the 2nd strongest as there's over 3 minutes before 3rd place, Britton, crosses the line.
