Course puts premium on expert climbers

It’s going to be difficult, unpredictable, hectic, chaotic, mountainous and filled with tight corners.

The cycling road races on the first weekend of competition at the Olympic Games will take place on a course unlike any other on the world circuit.

“I’m surprised someone signed off on a course this hard,” New Zealand’s George Bennett said Thursday.

“We’ve never seen a course like this before and probably won’t see one like it again.”

As daunting as that sounds, it’s doing nothing to deter the Canadian cyclists, who are itching to get out on the course and see what they can do.

The three-member Canadian men’s team will compete on the 241.5-km track on Saturday, one of the first events of the Games, while the three Canadian women will race Sunday over 140 km. Both courses are expected to favour expert climbers, making the race difficult to predict.

“All of our races are incredibly hard, but every race has different elements that make it challenging,” Winnipeg’s Leah Kirchmann says.

“We need to be really smart where we use energy and be in the right place in the right time in those key moments of the race.”

The women’s team also includes Tara Whitten of Toronto and Karol-Ann Canuel of Amos, Que. Both also are entered in individual time trial on Wednesday, which is a 30-km race, and much of the Canadian focus has been on that event.

On the men’s side, Mike Woods of Ottawa will be the lead rider, with Antoine Duchesne of Chicoutimi and Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpetue, Que., riding in support.

“It’s going to be a real race of attrition,” Woods says. “There are probably only 10-15 guys in this race that can win so it really is going to be coming down to those last three circuits and the guys who can conserve the most over the course of the day and hit out well on that last climb are going to have the most success.