photo by Michael Probst, Associated Press
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Geneviève Jeanson |
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Montreal, October 9, 99
Canada's newest sports hero
Lachine's Jeanson wins two world cycling gold medals
DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette
It's not precisely how you'd expect a newly crowned double world champion to celebrate, which probably best explains the magnificent success of Genevieve Jeanson.
The 18-year-old native of Lachine capped her incredible, historic week yesterday, winning the junior women's world cycling championship road-race in Verona, Italy, only four days after having won the individual time-trial. Never before had a Canadian, female or male, captured a road-cycling world championship at any level, and in four days Jeanson has done it twice.
"I don't think I realize all of this just yet," she said last night from her hotel room, having ducked a blizzard of telephone calls long enough to run through the shower. "I'm feeling a little tired, but I'm really enjoying my day."
Jeanson's week illustrated both the work and support of the many people around her, and a hungry young athlete's ability to squeeze in her fist every ingredient of a career-defining victory when it truly mattered.
Monday's 11.1-kilometre time-trial pitted riders against the clock. Racing second-to-last on the technical 11-turn course, Jeanson knew what time she had to beat and she did so, finishing 11 seconds ahead of Juliette Vanderkerkove of France.
But yesterday's road-race, a 65-km chase over asphalt and cobblestone against four-rider teams from Europe's cycling superpowers, was a much greater challenge. With Catherine Pouliot of Sainte-Foy the only other Canadian in the field, Jeanson could not enjoy the advantage of supportive teamwork over the four laps of 16 km.
So she employed the only sensible strategy open to her: she broke early from the pack and avoided the congestion that often results in multi-rider, spoke-snapping pileups.
"My strategy was to destroy their strategy, and to avoid the crashes," Jeanson said. "The girls are all excited at the worlds, so it's dangerous."
Her time of one hour, 47 minutes, 16 seconds placed her eight seconds ahead of Germany's Trixi Worrack. Italy's Noemi Cantele was 3:33 back to win the bronze medal; Sainte-Foy's Pouliot finished 50th, 21:14 behind.
A brilliant climber, Jeanson gained precious time on Worrack over a 4-km incline that she said geography had designed while thinking of her.
"I knew if I had the lead after the last descent, (Worrack) wouldn't be able to catch me," she said.
An ocean away, you can hear the quiet confidence of this athlete who has been riding since she was 11, but only seriously since October 1996. Since '95, she's been coached by Andre Aubut, a physical-education teacher at Ecole Secondaire Dalbe-Viau in Lachine.
Aubut knows a thing or two about athletic potential - for a time he coached two future world-champion kayakers, Caroline Brunet and Marie-Josee Gibeau.
Also published in the NATIONAL POST on October 9
in the Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL on October 9, 99
Quebec junior wins her second world championship cycling race
Jeanson to challenge veterans for spot on Canadian Olympic team
JAMES CHRISTIE
Sports Reporter
Saturday, October 9, 1999
Toronto -- When the veterans of Canada's elite women's cycling team come to the start line for Olympic road-race trials next summer they'll see a fresh face. They should take a good look. When they come to the finish line, some of them will be looking at her back.
Genevieve Jeanson, the 18-year-old racing sensation from Lachine, Que., marked herself as Canada's cyclist of the future when she won her second junior world championship race yesterday at Verona, Italy. She has posted herself as a serious threat to displace veterans such as Lyne Bessette, Clara Hughes, Linda Jackson or Anne Samplonius for the Sydney Olympics.
Canada can enter only three women in the Olympic road race. Next year, Jeanson will be 19 and eligible for the elite Olympic field for the first time.
"Sydney is the next goal," she said.
The administration student at Andre-Laurendeau College in Montreal is on top of the world as she leaves behind her junior career.
Jeanson displayed a non-stop attack mentality in winning yesterday's 65-kilometre road race. It followed up Monday's individual time trial win at Treviso.
Her unprecedented golden sweep of the women's junior events made her the only Canadian to win a world cycling road title at the senior or junior level.
"I still can't believe what happened, but deep down I knew I was capable of winning two gold medals," said Jeanson, who began racing at 11 and became a serious cyclist only three years ago.
Jeanson's forte is her hill-climbing ability, and this week she climbed all the way into the limelight of her sport. Almost instantly after her first win, Jeanson was installed as the covergirl of the Canadian Cycling Association's Internet home page.
In Verona, the hotel switchboard operator was growing weary last night of the relentless flood calls from interviewers.
"I'm very proud of myself," Jeanson said. "I'll be taking some vacations now and I'll have a clear head that I absolutely did the best I could."
Jeanson clocked 1 hour 47 minutes 16 seconds for the road-race win, edging German Trixi Worrack by eight seconds. Noemi Cantele of Italy was third, 3:33 back.
Jeanson had devised her own strategy to win the road race.
Only two Canadians were entered, compared to the four-women squads of the French, German, Italian and Spanish teams. Full teams play cat-and-mouse games and riders "draft" for each other, taking turns on the lead so riders tucked in behind can conserve energy. Jeanson had no such opportunity. Moreover, she rarely competes against the Europeans and had no handle on the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents.
She had to take those factors out of play and control the race from the front and make the others chase.
"I had to go [to the lead] early to prevent the other big countries from ganging up on me," Jeanson said. "When the race becomes a team game you can get into trouble and be in danger of being involved in crashes. I wanted to control the race."
The key area of the 16 kilometre loop, which the riders circled four times, was a four-kilometre climb. That played into Jeanson's specialty. With each climb, she opened up her edge on Worrack -- more time and space than the German could recoup on the way down.
"That hill didn't seem so bad in training but in the race when you're going full out it's a different story," Jeanson said. "But that hill was perfectly suited for me. The riders who were poor climbers fell out of contention early on. On the last lap I knew if I had the lead after the last descent the German wouldn't be able to catch me."
The other Canadian racer yesterday, Catherine Pouliot of Ste-Foy, Que., was 50th.
On Monday, Jeanson won the 11.1-kilometre individual time trial, moving up from the bronze medal she won at last year's world juniors. Her average speed was a blazing 46 kilometres an hour. Worrack was third in that race.
Jeanson became the only non-European to ever win a medal in the women's junior individual time trial since it became part of the world program in 1995. She backgrounded herself well. She went to Italy to inspect the time trial and road race courses last February after her coach's girlfriend raised $5,000 for the trip. She arrived two weeks early for the races.
Jeanson has moved up quickly by testing her talents at higher and higher levels. She competed as an amateur on the U.S. pro circuit this season, winning the three-stage Killington stage race in Vermont and set a women's record for the Mount Washington hill climb this past August in New Hampshire.
Competition ends for the Canadians today with the road race for the women's elite. Bessette, of Knowlton, Que., and Hughes of Winnipeg are Canada's top entries. Bessette, 24, has Canada's top road-race credentials internationally. She won France's premier women's race, the Tour de l'Aude, and posted three other international wins along the way. She was second at the World Cup in Montreal. She took the jersey as the top climber in the Tour de Suisse -- and the Alps are no ordinary hills.
Hughes, 27, the double Olympic bronze medalist in Atlanta and a silver medalist at the 1995 worlds, was primed to do well at the worlds, but was knocked flying off her bike when struck by a car during a training ride last week. With bruises all over her chest, arms and ribs, she still placed seventh in the elite women's 25.85-kilometre time trial at Treviso.
Back to Genevieve Jeanson's 1999 home page
This page of Genevieve Jeanson's www site (a section of VELOPTIMUM), was updated on
October 22, 1999 par
