Written by Canadian Nippon at 13:31 23/8-2022
Early days as some might say as the season is only twenty days old still but in a ninty days season that is a good chunk of the season to have no wins and no real results to speak. Canadian Nippon looked destine to fall back through the standing out of division two but that quickly changed when the team took part in the Vuelta a Porto
It didn`t start well as the team was expected to give Irving Watts the lead during the tour with five of the ten stages ending in bunch sprints. While allowing Conan Guillot and Abel Frint now two staple riders of tours for Canadian Nippon to chase the three TT stages including the prologue stage. That would change overnight a day before the start of the tour when the team triggered the Top form of both Conan Guillot and Abel Frint.
“At that point we had no choice really but to try to steal sprinting points from the sprinters during the TT stages with Frint & Guillot. While hoping that Guillot with help of the normally strong sprint train could keep him close to the top sprinters until the last stage.” Added someone from the team.
Stage 1: Porto Prologue
The stage would end up being Canadian Nippon’s first win of the season but it was Abel Frint that would claim the victory and not the hoped Conan Guillot. Guillot would place third as Dwayne Chamberlain would nip him to second on the stage. While most wouldn`t complain about two podiums in the first stage of the tour it was a lost opportunity for Guillot to claim points on the rest of the sprinters but having the extra ten points where better then having none; right?
Stage 2: Porto - Viana do Castelo
The sprinters would come and play during the second stage. This would be where Guillot would either prove he could ride against some of the best sprinter or leave the team looking for stage victories the rest of the tour. Guillot raced a hugely impressive race and finished second in the stage a head of Rens Vroom , Taurino Perez and a bunch of the more skilled sprinters giving the Canadian Nippon team a breath of fresh air and bit of hope. While still losing out to Robert Ajaezu; who was clearly the favorite heading into the tour. Could Guillot claim enough points in the TT stages to hang around while holding top nine placement in the sprint stages? Only time would tell.
Stage 3: Viana do Castelo - Portelinha
Climbing stage so Canadian Nippon members placed on practice and it showed with the best placed being Conan Guillot in 88th overall on the stage.
Stage 4: Porto - Aveiro
Another sprint stage and most likely was the pivotal stage of the race for Conan Guillot chances at the Sprint Classification as he would finish 7th on the stage will most of the other sprinters would finish ahead of him. Meaning he dropped points on stage he was trying to either maintain or gain points on the others. He still had a outside chance due to the two remaining TT stages in the tour so not all was lost yet.
Stage 5: Aveiro (ITT)
One of the stages that Canadian Nippon was actually targeting and simply put it was a disaster with Abel Frint the best placed rider in 9th and Conan Guillot in 14th but more importantly not picking up any Sprinter Classification points as Canadian Nippon had hoped. All but realistically ending all hopes for the jersey at the end of the tour unless Conan Guillot could pull an upset victory in one of the two remaining sprint stages.
Stage 6: Aveiro - Penamacor
Climbing means practice and so the teams rode around the back with Irving Watts the best placed in 85th.
Stage 7: Macedo de Cavaleiros - Vinhais
More climbing so much more of the same with Watts leading again one place better then stage 6 in 84th.
Stage 8: Vinhais - Vinhais
Back to the sprints and Conan Guillot need a big result if he was going to have any chance at the Sprinter Classification heading into the final day with stage 9 and Parade stage. Guillot rode an impress race but wasn`t enough to make ground up on Robert Ajaezu and Rens Vroom as they would finish ahead of him on the stage; increasing their lead over the French rider. He would need to ride the ITT of his life in stage 9 if he was going to give him a chance heading into the final stage. He had moved himself up into fourth overall in the Sprint Classification with the result and now would be looking to podium.
Stage 9: Porto (ITT
Unlike the longer Aveiro (ITT) where Canadian Nippon expected to possible podium but fell flat; Porto was more of what Canadian Nippon expected from the TT stages with Abel Frint once again grabbing the win but Guillot improving on his first stage placement to finish second and more importantly pulled himself within striking distance of the two sprint classification leaders Robert Ajaezu and Rens Vroom. Guillot would need to finish ahead of both these riders on the final stage to claim the Jersey but that might be too tall of an ask; but anything can happen in a final stage shoot-out between four riders as Taurino Perez was also still in striking distance in forth in the Sprinter Classification. Will it be winner takes all?
Stage 10: Porto - Porto (Parade)
Huge day for the sprinter with 10pts between Robert Ajaezu and Rens Vroom with 50pts for the win. Perez and Guillot still within an off chance of victory depending on placement of Robert Ajaezu and Rens Vroom so the four-rider line-up locked in a tense battle to the finish. In the end Robert Ajaezu won the stage and confirmed his grip on the green jersey but it was closer than most might consider with Taurino Perez doing all he could to keep the pressure on Ajaezu but it wouldn`t be enough. Guillot finished 5th on the stage and confirmed his podium in the sprinter classification finish 3rd with 117pts, 3pts back of Rens Vroom who struggled on the final stage finishing 7th but a distant third as he was 43pts behind the winner, Robert Ajaezu who won three of the four sprinting stages while podiuming in all four. It was in the end a dominate rider from Robert Ajaezu.
“Overall, I am more than happy with the result in the Sprint Classification while we dropped points on two stages where we expected to either hold or gain points means we should have been closer in the end then the 43pts behind the winner. That being said Guillot isn`t a sprinter so if could have easily also gone the other way. We won a few stages as we also target when entering tours and to podium in the SC is simple a cherry on top.”
Of the teams thirteen results on the season eight of them came during the tour including the SC podium result. Abel Frint has three results on the season with two stage victories in Vuelta a Porto while also claiming 2nd in Malmö – Landskrona on day 8 of the season. Conan Guillot leads the team with six results with five of them coming from the Vuelta a Porto with two 2nd and two 3rd with the sprinters classification 3rd add to the results. His only other result was a 3rd in Marathon TT at the start of the season. Eli Dauphin, Errol Mansell, Irving Watts and Jacky Berton have all claimed the other results for the team this season showing the strength of the roster at the moment with six rider scoring results for the team.
The team has also been busy off the streets with adding a ton of youth to the team in the past two weeks starting with 20yr old Jakob Norum, 21yr old Caldwell Hemby, 21yr old Austin Hinckley, 22yr old Quenby Roddy and 23yr old Cedric Resto. This now gives the team eight of twenty riders on the team under the age of 23 meaning the future looks bright for Canadian Nippon team.
“We signed all riders to hopefully replace our current sprint train with all of them having the skill to directly replace them as they train and develop. If we can get them all trained in a timely fashion then we expect them to form a string U23 team for any sprint races or even in supporting roles of your CB team ( Errol Mansell ). It means we have our work cut out for us as we have six riders that will require different amounts of training but all will play an important role for the team moving forward. It is an exciting time when you add depth, youth and potential to your team but now we hope they all reach their potential as we train them.”
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