Noah Ramsay (Bateman’s Bicycle Company) schooled the field on Saturday when he broke away on the first lap of the Tour de Via Italia–and stayed away for 74 km, taking the win. The 21-year-old averaged 47.4 km/h and finished 1:18 ahead of Ashlin Barry (EF Education – ONTO), who won the field sprint. Ramsay, a national team mountain biker, doesn’t do many crits, but he clearly showed he’s in form.
“I had zero intention of going solo that early; I was purely attacking for the fun of it and to gauge how the field would respond to a move by me. I knew I would have to break away from some of the faster finishers like Ashlin Barry to get the win, but the move stuck much earlier than I planned, which meant I had to stick with it and see what I could do,” he said after the race.
Committing to the dub
It took him 10 laps of the race to decide that maybe he should go for it. Initially, he figured a group of riders might bridge the gap.
Toronto’s Ashlin Barry is junior American national road champion
“Halfway through the race, when I had a 45-second gap, I committed to trying to hold the lead and focused on my power output,” he said.
Speaking of power, at that speed, you better believe it was impressive.
“I averaged around 390 watts for 90 minutes, which was about how long the race was. For an hour, I pushed 395 watts,” he said. “My effort was quite steady as I was just making sure I kept the sensations to a comfortably hard pace, trying to limit any surging in case the group brought me back.”
Only the third crit he’s raced
This was only the third crit race he’s done, with the other two being local races part of the Midweek Cycling series in Toronto last year.
After the dominant win in Ontario, he’s headed to Europe for some much bigger races.
“All that is left for this year is the MTB World Championships in Andorra, the two UCI North American World Cups, and the Iceman Cometh Challenge. I’m hoping to find a few road races to do in between to build my portfolio in that discipline,” he said. “I’ll be in Andorra for three weeks in total. I have done some preparation at home in Toronto prior to flying by sleeping in an altitude tent. I’m looking forward to two weeks of riding in the mountains before race week.”
Solid 2024 season on the dirt
2024 has been a good year for Ramsay. He took his first UCI elite win in the short track in Tennessee earlier this year and came second at the under-23 XCO national…
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