Canadian Press

Kamloops, B.C. — The top three women who finished Sunday's elite cycling road race will likely be the three Canadians headed to Athens.

At least, that's the way Lynn Bessette sees it.

Bessette, a member of the Quebec team, crossed the finish line in three hours 35 minutes nine seconds to claim gold on the final day of the Tim Hortons road national championships.

Bessette and teammate Manon Jutras, who came in second, led the race from its early stages and maintained the lead to the end.

Bessette believes Jutras and Susan Palmer-Komar, a Genesis Scuba racer who finished fourth, will be on Canada's cycling roster.

"If [the Canadian Cycling Association selection committee] doesn't see it like that, who else would they bring?" Bessette said. "Everybody else was 15 minutes back."

Bessette was pleased with the gold medal, but more excited at the prospect of Jutras joining her on Team Canada.

"She needed a good race today and she did awesome," Bessette said of Jutras. "And she needed to show herself that she could be there the whole race and she was."

The Canadian team will be announced July 12. Three women and three men will make the team.

Jutras' chances would have been better with a first-place finish on Sunday.

The latest International Cycling Union rankings will be released this week.

The top Canadian woman — as of June 13, Bessette had 214 points to Genevieve Jeanson's 166 — is guaranteed a spot and the final two riders will be selected by a four-person panel.

"The plan before the race was that we were both racing for ourselves, but I was not going to get in her way," Bessette said when asked if she considered allowing Jutras to win gold. "She knew that, I knew that and it was clear.

"It's better to race a real race because she did a great race."

Victoria's Erinne Willock, who races for Rona, finished third.

Bessette and Jutras pulled away from the pack on the first lap, during a climb up the hill on Battle Street. Palmer-Komar and Willock stayed together.

With five of 12 laps to go, the two leaders were two minutes 20 seconds ahead of Palmer-Komar and Willock.

That lead extended to over five minutes with four laps to go and, with just three laps remaining, Bessette and Jutras had a seven-minute lead.

The pair stayed together until the final lap, when Bessette showed her strength on the Battle Street hill and pulled away from Jutras.

"We wanted to bring the level of the race to our level," Jutras said. "We're used to racing internationally. We thought, OK, there are a lot of Canadians here and it's a great opportunity for beginners to start the race with great Canadians such as Lynn Bessette and Genevieve Jeanson but we cannot do the race at their level. We have to bring it up to our level."

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