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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 12, 2006 - 31 Road race victory gives Hinnen second national cycling crown By Herb Garbutt In the time trial the previous day, Hinnen said bad pavement made it difficult to get into a rhythm for the time trial and he didn't adapt Mark Hinnen certainly doesn't play well to the constant changes in pace. Hinnen favourites. finished in 28 minutes, 30.60 seconds, to place One year after winning the junior time trial third behind Alberta's Eric Smith, who won in title at the Canadian Cycling Championships, 27:47.85, and Manitoba's Andrew Nichol. the 18-year-old delivered another national Hinnen said he got a lot more experience in title recently, this time in the road road racing after spending the race. Hinnen had been focusing on "It was nice spring in Europe to train. He spent defending his time trial victory at except during the February and March in Spain the Canadian championships in race I didn't even before moving on to Belgium. Quebec City but after a third-place think about (win"They start racing a lot earlier finish, he summoned up a strong there and the fields are deeper so ning). I was so effort in the road race. you gain a lot more experience," "I still feel the time trial is tired, it didn't he said. where I'm best, I just didn't have even set in until The down side, Hinnen said, is my best day because the course after." you don't know who is clean. didn't really suit me," he said. "I "There's a lot of doping. You try focused a lot on doing well in the Mark Hinnen to compare yourself to others but time trial and didn't even really you're always questioning who's think about the road race and I didn't really on drugs and who's not." put that much pressure on myself (for the Another advantage of training in Europe is road race)." that the world championships will be held in A breakaway group took a 40-second lead Belgium in August. That gave Hinnen a on the pack, which included Hinnen. He start- chance to ride the course he will be competing ed a solo charge and with 30 kilometres left in on. the 120-km race, he caught the lead group. "Last year I was getting experience," Hinnen wasn't content just to catch them, Hinnen said of competing at worlds. "This though. He charged ahead and at one point year I'm hoping to get a result." built a two-minute lead, eventually winning Hinnen was 42nd in the time trials last in a time of two hours, 40 minutes and 14 sec- year and was involved in a crash that broke onds, a 74-second margin over Manitoba's his bike and knocked him out of the road Alexander Korten. race. This year, he's got his sights set on a "It was nice except during the race I didn't top-10 finish. even think about (winning)," Hinnen said. "It wasn't until about the last 100 metres. I was -- Herb Garbutt can be reached at so tired, it didn't even set in until after." sports@oakvillebeaver.com. OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF ROB JONES / CANADIANCYCLIST.COM NATIONAL CHAMPION: Mark Hinnen raises his arms in victory after winning the road race event at the recent Canadian Cycling Championships. Difficulty passing Dirani keeps Hinchcliffe off podium Continued from page 30 Lewis tried to make a pass on me on the inside. I was on the outside and got stuck there. I hit the brakes and had to literally park the car on the track for about 15 seconds." Hinchcliffe would spend the remainder of the 37 laps between sixth and eighth place. He had difficulty getting past Danillo Dirani, making it difficult to gain any ground on the front-runners. Dirani would eventually leave the race with mechanical difficulties with seven laps remaining. By that time, Hinchcliffe was running 20 seconds behind the top four cars. "I got stuck behind the No. 1 car for way too long. That hurt our progress," he said. "Had we been able to get Dirani earlier, it might have been a different race." First lap always dangerous Hinchcliffe said prior to the race that even though he had been watching the race as a spectator since he was three, that wouldn't be an advantage because tracks are much different in a car. However, knowing a little bit of the race's history helped him survive the wild first lap. "Turn 1 in Toronto has always been known for having an incident or two in the first lap so that's why I tried to play it conservative," he said. "You can't win the race in the first corner but you can sure as hell lose it. A few guys learned that the hard way." While race days have gone well for Hinchcliffe this season, he said the team has to work on qualifying better. After starting fifth for the first two races of the season, it hasn't been better than eighth for the last six. "We dropped the ball in qualifying," said Hinchcliffe, who received the loudest cheer in the driver introductions. "I made a few mistakes and the car wasn't exactly where we wanted it. As a team we're learning and growing and we're just going to work on our qualifying performance." Hinchcliffe still managed to pick up 19 points for his sixth-place finish, giving him 110 for the season. That helped him maintain fifth place in the driver's standings and gain ground on Rahal and Andreas Wirth, neither of whom finished the race. Simon Pagenaud took over the series lead from Wirth with 153 points thanks to his secondplace finish. Race winner Jonathan Bomarito is fourth with 121 points. Hinchcliffe still has five races left to focus on for this year, including races in Edmonton and Montreal, but already he's looking forward to racing in Toronto again. "It felt great. It's always nice to race at home and the fan support was just incredible all weekend. The track's fun, it's got a good rhythm to it. Basically, I just can't wait to get back here next year." -- Herb Garbutt can be reached at sports@oakvillebeaver.com. GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER BIGGEST FAN: James Hinchcliffe receives a congratulatory kiss from girlfriend Lauren Wilkens following Saturday's Atlantic Championship series practice session at the Grand Prix of Toronto pits.