L’Enfer du Nord, just like the name suggests, is closer to home than most of the ECCC races. This meant a larger than usual turn up for the McGill crew. The race weekend took place in both Hanover, New Hampshire, and Middlebury, Vermont, on the 6thand 7thof April, respectively. McGill’s presence in both the criterium and the road race was strong. With intelligent team work and panache, the team managed to attain impressive results.
McGill had representation at the Saturday criterium in four separate fields: Men’s A, B, D, and women’s C.
In the men’s B criterium, Jose Antonio Jijon Vorbeck, Martin Espana Cuaran and Félix Fournier raced intelligently. Chasing every attack and driving up the pace, Antonio made his presence felt for every competitor. Félix managed to snag a few intermediate sprint points and took third place in the end.
In the men’s A field, Christopher Gill and Nicolas Kleban found themselves amongst a very strong field. Throughout the race, the pair made many moves and managed to collect sprint points. In the end, Nicolas raced through a bunch sprint to get a top ten.
In Women’s C, Genevieve Soden raced with grit and determination, but was the unfortunate victim of a crash in her peloton. This crashed took her out of contention for the rest of the race.
In the men’s D field, Khaled Isselmou raced as hard as physically possible in his first ever race. However, the strength of the field forced him to stop after a grueling first half of the race.
The Sunday road race, the main event for most of us, took place on a rolling 14-mile loop, with approximately 350 meters of climbing. In the men’s D race, Khaled raced with all his might and managed to stay with the strong group to finish a difficult race.
In the men’s B, Antonio, Martin, Adithya, and Félix controlled the race from the start, launching attacks and reeling in some. Antonio made a bold move, attacking solo and staying away for a full lap. After this, another attack went with which Félix took part in. That attack managed to stay away until the end of the race where Félix, unable to shake off his competition, took third in a reduced bunch sprint.
In the men’s A, Nick, Felix Oestereich, & Chris fought with everything they had to control some attacks and fight off the big teams. Ultimately, Felix and Chris both had to stop because of mechanicals. Nick on the other hand, managed to make his way into a breakaway. All looked very good for this break until they got caught by the bunch near the finish line where Nick sprinted to another top ten finish.