June 10/08 7:36 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 1 report & results

Posted by Editoress on 06/10/08
 

Tour de Beauce

Photos

The 23rd Tour de Beauce began today with the traditional Lac Etchemin road race stage. Mexico's Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Tecos Trek UAG) took the biggest win of his career when a mid-race breakaway resulted in a solo victory and the yellow jersey.

The 165 kilometre stage on one long loop that encompasses typical Beauce terrain - lots of climbing and rough roads. The 30-plus Celcius temperature and heavy, damp air was not conducive to breakaway efforts, plus most of the peloton was either coming off Philly Week or Coupe Des Nations Ville De Saguenay for the U23 riders. Tired legs did not make for extremely aggressive racing.

Two riders did finally manage to break free of the bunch at close to the halfway mark - Jay Robert Thomson (South African U23 Team) and Martyn Irvine (Pezula Racing). By the second KoM at the 100 kilometre mark the pair had two minutes on Colex (who had jumped away from the peloton at the base of the KoM) and 3:22 on the field.

"It had been pretty agressive for a while, and then everyone sort of sat up, so that was the time to go," explained Thomson. "But it was a long time for two to be out there; we were hoping more would come across."

Colex went across quickly, and wih the extra power the trio took the gap to over five minutes by the 125 kilometre point. This was too much for Symmetrics and the German Sparkasse team, and they went to the front to reduce the deficit.

With 25 kilometres to go the gap was down to 3:30, and then Colex rode the other two off his wheel on a short, steep climb a few kilometres later. He quickly took 45 seconds out of Thomson and Irvine, who were eventually absorbed by the peloton in the closing kilometres, on the final climb back into Lac Etchemin.

The effort of the top teams shattered the field, with a lead group of 17 coming in 16-20 seconds behind Colex. Amore E Vita's Swedish sprinter Michael Stevenson led the group home to take second, followed by Eric Baumann (Sparkasse). Also in the group were three Symmetrics riders (Svein Tuft, Christian Meier and Cam Evans), Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) and Miguel Martinez (Amore E Vita), the former mountain bike Olympic and world champion. After time bonuses are factored in, Colex leads Stevenson by 20 seconds, with 17 other riders within 30 seconds.

For Symmetrics, it was an almost perfect scenario, explained manager Kevin Fields. "We wanted to break it up a bit, but not have someone with too big a gap in the lead. This works really well for, because we have three guys up there, and Tecos will do the work of protecting the jersey."

24 year old Bernardo Colex was almost stunned with his unexpected win, vibrating with energy as he waited for the awards ceremony. "This is the greatest result of my career," he confirmed with a smile. "I have never been the leader in a big international event like this."

Like Thomson and Irvine, he picked his moment to attack. "It was very slow at the time, and my team captain [Gregorio Ladino Vega] told me to make a move. I had no doubt that I could catch the break, and I went up to them quickly. After I saw that I had dropped them, it was up to me on my own."

So will Tecos Trek defend the jersey?

"Si" said both Colex and his manager simultaneously.

Race Notes

- The Tour de Beauce lost two teams even before it started. Slipstream Chipotle is wracked with injuries, and would have been unable to send even a partial team of five riders (instead of eight), while the French Aix en Provence squad had flight problems and couldn't make the start.

- The peloton had shed over a dozen riders by the 100 kilometre mark, and three eventually finished outside the time limit, while 13 did not start.