Nickolas Zukowsky found himself in a peculiar situation on Friday in the road cycling World Championships time trial in Stirling, UK. Coming out of a bend, the Quebecer was stuck behind two cars and paid a visit to the roadside ditch to avoid a collision.
“There were a lot of trees coming out of a corner and I couldn’t see if there was traffic on the other side. Obviously there were two cars… I saw an opening on the right to avoid them and I decided to go, but at the last second one of the cars moved to that side in order to let me pass. I had no choice but to go into the ditch if I didn’t want to hit the car,” Zukowsky told Sportcom.
Luckily, Zukowsky was finally able to get back on his bike to finish his effort. He eventually finished 45th (6 minutes 51 seconds). The 25-year-old cyclist finished 40th last Sunday in the road race.
“I thought about giving up because it hurt, but the pain went away pretty quickly. I left to cross the finish line quietly. I am happy with the start of my effort, but for sure I would have liked it to end differently. »
Derek Gee, the other Canadian in action on Friday, finished 18th, 2 minutes and 58 seconds behind the winner and new time trial world champion, Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
Italian Filippo Ganna (12 seconds) and Briton Joshua Tarling (48 seconds) finished second and third respectively.
While the road race course was the subject of much discussion last weekend, Zukowsky believes the organizing committee did a good job of time trialing to present a circuit worthy of the ‘event.
“It wasn’t a very technical race, but it was a perfect course for the expert time trialists. You couldn’t make a mistake, as soon as you lost a bit of momentum, it was almost the end,” Zukowsky concluded.
In para-cycling, Charles Moreau finished 22nd in the road race (H3). The Quebecer covered the 62.4 kilometers of the event in 1h 52 min 41 s (7 minutes 8 seconds).
Victory went to Italian Mirko Testa who sprinted ahead of Frenchman Johan Quaile and German Vico Merklein who finished second and third.
Louis-Albert Corriveau-Jolin was also in action on Friday in the T2 category for the road race where he finished in 14th place (4 minutes 30 seconds).