Kirsten Wild wins Grand Prix Gatineau sprint finish

Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) sprinted to her eighth win of the season on Thursday night, edging out Joelle Numainville (Team Canada) and Christine Marjerus (Boels-Dolmans) to the top step of the podium at the Grand Prix Gatineau. While several riders attempted to escape from the bunch in the second half of the 108 kilometre race, the peloton ultimately neutralised all break attempts before the line.

The 11km city circuit hosted the majority of the race action with riders slipping clear on each of the six laps. Prior to the city circuit, the women’s peloton tackled a 36.7km loop into Gatineau Park that served to soften the field.

Velocio-SRAM proved the main aggressors on the day with Elise Delzenne, Tayler Wiles, Loren Rowney and Karol-Ann Canual all finding their way up the road. but nothing stuck.

SAS-Mazda, Team Canada and TIBCO-SVB also raced offensively. Hitec assumed responsibility for the majority of the chase work, and at one point had four riders on the front chasing down what they deemed to be a threatening two-rider escape of Delzenne and Alison Jackson (Team Canada).

Canual would put in the last attack of the way, pulling away solo in the final ten kilometres. The Canadian was overtaken by a fast-charging field just past the four kilometre mark.

Dominant in mass sprints, Wild took the win, her eighth win this season.

UCI racing continues in Gatineau on Friday with Chrono Gatineau, an 11.5km individual time trial.