June 13/09 18:58 pm - Tour de Beauce: Stage 5 report, full results and PHOTOS

Posted by Editoress on 06/13/09
 

Local hero Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia) gave his team their first win of the week on stage five in his home of Quebec City, after a near race-long breakaway stayed clear to the finish. Dionne's team mate Alesandro Bazzanna took second, with Otavio Bougarelli (Garneau-Club Chaussure) third. Two other Canadians also made the top-ten for the stage - Derrick St-John (Garneau-Club Chaussure) in fourth place at nine seconds and Cam Evans (Canadian National Team) in ninth at 16 seconds.

Photos

Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) continues to lead the overall standings after six stages, with an accumulated time of 15:20:39, followed by the Colombian duo of Sergio Henao and Darwin Atapuma at 51 seconds and 1:12 respectively. Each made up a few seconds on Zwizanski on the final climb to the finish line. St-John is the top Canadian in the standings, moving into tenth place after Saturday's stage, 3:20 behind Zwizanski, while Ryan Roth (Planet Energy) drops six places to 15th at 5:33, and Evans moves up five places to 16th, at 5:47.

The 125 kilometre circuit race sends the riders on nine laps of a circuit that starts on the Grand Allee, rolls past the Plains of Abraham and drops down to head alongside the St Lawrence river before a hard and steep climb through Old Quebec back to the finish line.

While Zwizanski had a comfortable minute-plus lead on the Colombians, his team knew that Henao and Atapuma would be looking to launch attacks on the climb near the end of the race, to try and gain some time. For Kelly Benefit Strategies, a break of non-contenders with a good mix of squads would take some of the pressure off.

On lap two a break went clear with seven riders - Evans, Jackson Stewart (BMC Racing Team), Jonathan Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies), Kristian House (Rapha Condor), François Parisien (Planet Energy), Henao and Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team). This was certainly too dangerous for Kelly Benefit, with Henao and Wyss up front, so it was quickly brought back and the deck reshuffled.

A lap later, and group that contained no immediate threats was away and building up a gap. In the group was Evans, St-John, Dionne, Bazzanna, Bougarelli, Matt Wilson (Team Type 1), Caleb Fairly (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin U23), Simon Richardson (Rapha Condor), Steve Bovay (BMC), Bjorn Selanler (Trek Livestrong), Ian MacGregor (Team Type 1), Tony Cruz (BMC) and William Munoz (Colombian National). The closest to Zwizanski on GC was Selanler at 5:19, followed by Bovay at 6:05 and St-John at 6:19.

By lap six the gap was getting dangerous at over 5:20, which made Selanler the leader on the road. Kelly Benefit was chasing hard, but making little headway until the Colombian team joined in, alarmed by the fact that their podium spots were disappearing also. Munoz dropped back to assist his team in the chase.

"The break was a little bigger than we had hoped," admitted Zwizanski. "We wanted there to be a break with a gap, but not that many riders. Luckily, Colombia was not happy with the situation either, and helped out. We survived ... survival is the right word, for sure."

Slowly the gap started to shrink in the final three laps, down to four minutes by lap eight, and to three minutes at the start of the final lap. The chase was assisted by the breakdown in cooperation among the leaders, as the finish approached.

Cam Evans was the most aggressive, attacking multiple times, before getting a gap along the bottom section of the course with a lap and a half to go. Over the top of the climb he was joined by Fairly, Bougarelli and Richardson, and the group had ten seconds through the finish line as they started the final lap.

The rest of the break clawed their way back up before the descent, and then St-John attacked along the bottom, with Evans and Dionne trying to bridge up. The rest of the break weren't prepared to let them go, however, and the group started the final climb together.

"Everyone rolled through, it was a good break," said Evans. "The thing was, that we didn't want to go out too much, because then they would panic behind and start to chase too hard. Once we got to five minutes we started to feather it a bit."

"Since it's my first race back, I wasn't too confident of my form, so I figured that if I got away, maybe they'd do a 'cat and mouse' thing behind me. But they came back, and on the final climb I was pretty gassed, so I couldn't respond. But, all things considered, I'm pretty pleased."

Bazzanna was the one to ignite the attack that finally splintered the group on the climb, with Dionne chasing up, followed by Bougarelli. Dionne finally caught and dropped his team mate in the final stretch to coast in for the win in front of a cheering, partisan crowd.

"This is a huge, huge win for me, to win at home in front of my family. We were away all day in a break, and because we were not a threat for the overall classification, I knew there was a good chance for us to stay away. On the final climb, my team mate Bazzanna attacked at the bottom and I was able to follow him, and then finally pass to win. I was mad at not winning yesterday, and I was not going to let myself be beaten today."

The rest of the break gradually trickled in over the next 20 seconds, but the fireworks were just starting behind, as the Colombians went to work on Zwizanski.

"Atapuma went first," explained Zwizanski, "and I was able to come back. Then Henao countered. Neil [Shirley] drove it up the rest of the climb and we were able to keep it close. All you can do that last time is go as hard as you can."

"My guys were all strong today, I think we responded pretty well to the pressure. Tomorrow is another pretty hard circuit, I hear, and we will do our best again. We aren't going to go out without a fight."

Race Notes

- Tomorrow's final stage is the traditional one around St-George, again dominated by a long and steep climb (with the finish at the top). Zwizanski's team will once again have their work cut out for them. Cam Evans, who has raced the circuit a number of times offers the following comments:

"It's a super hard course, and it's the type of course that's difficult to defend on. Three guys away is almost as good as a bunch, because unlike today [Quebec City], there isn't a long straight section to chase on. It could break up pretty good."

Will Evans try to get away in a break again? "I'll have to see how my legs are."

The 12 lap, 130 kilometre stage starts at 10:00 am and should finish at around 1:30 pm. We will be providing live coverage, as usual.

- We will be posting a video interview with Charles Dionne, and his description of the race varies considerably to what we (and Radio Tour) saw. This definitely happens in the heat of the race, but the most interesting thing is the finish, with Dionne clearly coming up to and passing his team mate in the final 100 metres to take the win. Afterwards, Bazzanna didn't look too, too happy, and was seen gesticulating to team director Henk Vogels. He didn't crack a smile on the podium either...