June 12/08 9:22 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 3 photos and report

Posted by Editoress on 06/12/08
 

Tour de Beauce

Photos

Bernardo Colex (Tecos Trek UAG) let his rivals know that he wasn't going to give up the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de Beauce without a fight, with an aggressive ride up Mont Megantic to finish second on stage three behind Miguel Martinez (Amore E Vita-McDonalds). Colex now holds a 16 second lead over Martinez in the general classification, however, of more significance is Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) at 39 seconds, Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) at 51 seconds and Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1) at 57 seconds - one of these three is likely to take over the lead after Friday morning's 20 kilometre time trial.

Mont Megantic is the queen stage of Tour de Beauce, and always narrows the field of contenders to no more than half a dozen. At 152.6 kilometres, it is only the third longest stage and the profile is less punishing than the previous two. The difference is the final five kilometres, which averages over 10%, with sections that approach 18%.

The Mont Megantic stage has a regular pattern, with a break going out early, establishing a sizable gap and then getting caught in the final kilometres by the favourites as the road goes vertical. This year was no different.

By the 14 kilometre mark three riders were clear and battling significant head and cross winds as they carved out a gap on the Tecos-led peloton. Sebastien Fournet-Fayard (A-Style Stomn) and Derek Burke (Pezula Racing) were the first to go, joined within a couple of kilometres by Phil Cortes (Amore E Vita-McDonalds). Fournet-Fayard is becoming the Jacky Durand of the race, since he has gone out on lengthy breaks in all three stages.

By the 50 kilometre point the gap was up over five minutes, but the peloton wasn't reacting - the few instances when the break has stayed away on this stage had gaps of over ten minutes. The break really began to lose impetus when Burke suffered a mechanical and was dropped by the other two 70 kilometres into the stage. He chased for 15 kilometres before dropping back to the peloton (and eventually finishing 108th, 34:20 down).

The pair managed to maintain their gap for another 35 kilometres, but then it began to steadily shrink, and was down to three and a half minutes with 30 kilometres to go - 25 to the climb. Fournet-Fayard was continuing to push along, but Cortes was flagging, and was dropped two kilometres later, to be scooped up by the peloton.

Fournet-Fayard was muscling his bike along into the wind, stomping on the pedals over the rolling climbs that appeared with monotonous regularity. He stilled looked impressively strong, but the peloton was starting to pick up speed, as the teams jostled for position leading into the climb, and he was caught with six kilometres to go - one kilometre before the climb began.

Now it was time for the race to really begin. Team Type 1 threw down the gauntlet with an attack by Chadwick almost immediately after the road pitched up. Colex reacted instantly, bridging up and going straight by the Kiwi. Team Type 1 responded with Kobzarenko and their own Mexican climber - Moises Aldape. Chadwick managed to join back on, and it was Colex surrounded by a trio from TT1 with only a kilometre of the climb covered.

"We wanted to go hard right from the bottom," agreed Chadwick. "I went right at the bottom, then Moises and Colex came by. But, Kobza and Martinez brought it back together. We wanted to not lose time on the pure climbers. My hat's off to [Colex] though, he covered the attacks."

Colex, as one of the climbers, was trying to drop the time trialers. "What worried me the most was Chadwick and the others would stay with me on the climb. When Team Type 1 went so early, I had to react. I was concerned about it being too early, yes, but the team has done so much work for me that I had to try and reward them."

However, the action was only just underway. Martinez could see the race disappearing, and jumped away from the disintegrating field, taking five riders with him - his own team mate Soren Nissen, Tuft, Chris Newton (Rapha Condor Recycling) and another Tecos rider Gregorio Ladino Vega. Ladino Vega was significant, since he won Megantic last year.

"I was surprised that Colex went so early," commented Martinez. "But I knew not to panic, because I knew once he was in the wind he would slow, and I had the motivation to catch him."

This group came across, followed by Francois Parisien (Team Race Pro), and with three kilometres to go there were ten riders still in contention. TT1 clearly had the numbers, so Ladino Vega decided to stir things up by attacking and forcing them to chase, while the race leader got a free ride. For Tecos, a win by Ladino Vega would be just fine - he was the same time behind Colex as Chadwick, Martinez, Nissen, Tuft and Kobzarenko.

TT1 sent Kobzarenko to the front to do the chasing, and they finally managed to pull the Tecos rider back as the race entered the final kilometre and a 13% grade. Parisien and Newton had dropped back slightly at this point, and the rest of the chasers were fighting their own private battles on the last incline.

Martinez, Colex, Aldape and Chadwick got a slight gap on the rest, with the former mountain bike world and Olympic champion able to drop Colex in the last 200 metres to roll across the line first by six seconds, followed by Aldape at eight seconds, Chadwick at 13, Ladino Vega at 21, Nissen at 23 and Tuft in seventh at 25 seconds.

"I know Martinez was one of the greatest climbers in mountain biking, so I knew that he would be strong," explained Colex. "When he attacked at the end, all I could do was to try not to give up to big a gap."

Martinez, however, revealed that he was near his own limit. "I was surprised at how hard the climb was, I did not know it was so tough; other riders told me that is was easier than I had heard! When I saw the sign for 200 metres, I thought I could win, but if it had been 500 or 300 metres then I could not have done it."

With the time bonuses awarded, this moved Martinez into second overall, followed by Aldape, Chadwick, Ladino Vega, Nissen, Tuft and Kobzarenko. All are less than a minute out of the lead.

This puts Tuft - a former winner of the time trial at Beauce - as the favourite for the next stage.

"For me, it was all about limiting my losses here, against the climbers. I'm not the sort of rider who can go explosively on this type of climb, so I needed to come into the base fresh to have a chance. The team did that, they looked after me so well, that I didn't have to spend anytime in the wind at all."

Chadwick summed the situation up succinctly: "We would have liked to put more time on Tuft today, he's pretty strong."

Race Notes

- Johan Rabie (South Africa U23) took over the Young Rider lead, 32 seconds in front of Christian Meier (Symmetrics), who finished an impressive 21st on the stage despite spending the previous evening in the hospital to get five stitches in his hip after an altercation with a park car in the previous stage. TT1 takes over the Points jersey (Aldape) and the Climber's jersey (Chadwick).

- There have been concerns from a number of riders about the lack of doping control after each stage. According to race manager Francis Rancourt, the UCI decided to test at the Tour of PEI this year. "The UCI decides which races for doping control. As the only UCI [men's] race, we have had testing for many, many years, but the UCI said that this year they would test the women's race (Tour of PEI)."

- The 20 kilometre out-and-back time trial is perfect for power riders, with a long steady climb to open, and a flat / false flat section to the turnaround. It suits riders like Tuft and Chadwick.