Amateur athlete of the week

Teen is stepping up after dominating

Arpon Basu

Many athletes need to lose so they can learn how to win, but Longueuil's Simon Lambert-Lemay is going about it in reverse.

The 16-year-old cyclist is entering a season in which he will be facing world-class competition for the first time, meaning he will also have to get accustomed to watching other people cross the finish line before him, something that hasn't happened very often in his five years of competitive cycling.

Lambert-Lemay finished second in the first cycling race he entered, six years ago, but that was only a speed bump en route to his finishing first on the Quebec Cup circuit and winning the provincial championship. As far as debut seasons go, it wasn't half bad.

"It was brand new for me, so it was fun," Lambert-Lemay said. "It's gone pretty well since then, too."

Pretty well ? That's one way of describing winning another four consecutive Quebec Cup and provincial titles, but ridiculously dominant would probably be more accurate.

Last year, Lambert-Lemay took an important step in his development when he entered his first Canadian junior championships despite being a year short of junior age.

But competing against kids his age in Quebec had become a bit tedious by then, and Lambert-Lemay needed a new frontier to conquer.

"I didn't really have any goals at nationals," Lambert-Lemay said. "I just figured if I did my best, I'd get some good results."

Lambert-Lemay figured right, winning the criterium event, coming fourth in the road race and 12th in the time trial to finish the year as the fifth-ranked junior in Canada, but first for his age.

Those results attracted some attention, and Lambert-Lemay was recruited this year to train and compete with Hot Tubes Cycling, a top U.S.-based junior team. He leaves with his Hot Tubes teammates this week to spend a month in Europe, where he will be exposed to international competition for the first time in junior races in Belgium and France.

This summer, Lambert-Lemay also plans to compete in his first stage race when he enters the Tour de l'Abitibi, a week-long internationally sanctioned event, and he hopes to perform well enough at the junior nationals this year to qualify for a spot in the world juniors to be held in Mexico this August.

Basically, Lambert-Lemay is starting the most important season of his life, but he's trying not to look too far ahead to his ultimate goal of becoming a pro, because he can see that is still quite far away.

"I'm really hitting the big time now," he said, his eyes wide with anticipation more so than nerves. "Going from junior to the pros is a really big step, sometimes it takes four or five years before someone makes it. So I have a lot of steps to take before making it there.

"I've just taken a big step, and I really hope to leave my mark on the junior ranks."

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