Jones finishes second in men’s race.
Second place, clean race bode well for star Canadian
Kyle Jones knows plenty about a bike crash throwing a wrench into his plans.
With a pair of crashes in his three starts in International Triathlon Union events this season, the Canadian triathlete was searching desperately for a clean race Sunday at the ITU World Cup stop at Hawrelak Park.
While Jones managed to finish second behind France’s Gregory Rouault, the rest of the pack wasn’t so lucky on a sun-drenched afternoon.
“It was right on the first lap, probably a couple (kilometres) into the race. We climbed the hill and you do a roundabout and you really pick up speed, so we were really going quick and I could just heard the carnage behind me,” Jones said of the wreck, which happened at the top of Groat Road at 87th Avenue.
“Unfortunately, it was a teammate Andrew Yorke (involved) … I’ve been in that position twice this year, so I know how he felt and I thought about him out on the run for sure, because it’s tough.”
In addition to Yorke, a number of other Canadians got caught up in the crash behind the lead pack, as Alexis Lepage was forced out of the race while Antoine Jolicoeur-Desroches managed to climb back on his bike and gut out a 34th-place finish.
For Jones, the runner-up finish seven seconds back of Rouault’s winning time of 57:38 wasn’t the ultimate result the defending champion had been looking for, but nonetheless was a positive during a frustrating start to a season that seemed ripe with promise.
“It’s been a rocky start to 2013,” said Jones, who suffered bike crashes in Auckland, N.Z., and San Diego before a clean race in Madrid.
“I finished the season really strong last year and had a great winter of training, so I knew I was in good form, but to have those two crashes early on, I needed to have a performance today to get me moving for the rest of the series.
“I really wanted to get that World Cup win today, but the national championship is a good consolation,” added Jones, who took home his second national title in a field with 18 Canadians.
Jones is now ready to push his previous disappointments out of his mind, once and for all.
“Crashes aside, training has been going very well,” Jones said.
“All this year, (I’m) having probably the best times in training I’ve (ever) had, so it was definitely frustrating to have those crashes because you really want to show that form, but today I showed a bit of that and I think it’ll propel the rest of my season.
“Once I healed up physically (from the crashes), certainly mentally it was hard to come back from. Knowing you’re in that good form but not being able to show it (was hard). Endurance sport is very difficult because you put in all the work and, if you don’t show up on race day and things don’t come together, there’s nothing to show for it.”
Sunday may have been Jones’ best effort of 2013, but he was the first to admit he didn’t quite have what it took in the run to get over the hump against Rouault, who had a healthy lead with less than a kilometre to go in the 10 km run.
“I felt pretty good all day. Right from the swim, I was top five, top 10 out of the water,” said Jones, who was 22 seconds back of fellow Canadian Andrew McCartney out of the water.
“On the bike I just kind of sat in and stayed safe. On the run I felt alright, but just didn’t have that top end.
“Greg’s a great runner. I know that from racing him on the circuit and it came down to the two of us there and I just didn’t have that top gear today. I really wanted to get the win, obviously, but happy with a national title, of course, and just to be back on the podium.” NOTES: Ukraine’s Ivan Ivanov rounded out the podium, finishing in third place, 15 seconds back of Jones … The second-fastest Canadian on was Hamilton’s Taylor Reid, who was 16th with a time of 58:44.