June 13/08 10:59 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 4b report, photos & full results

Posted by Editoress on 06/13/08
 

Tour de Beauce

Photos

Symmetrics successfully defended the yellow jersey for the first of three remaining stages this evening in the 60 kilometre criterium held in St Georges. For all the GC contenders, the crit stage is more something to be gotten through then a serious race. However, for the non-contenders and the sprinters, this is one of the few opportunities they have to shine, and Evan Elken (Jittery Joes) took his first victory in four years after soloing away from a breakaway group that had lapped the field.

For Symmetrics, the hope was that a break of non-threatening riders would establish a break, so that the S-Team could roll around the circuit without having to expend too much effort. However, initially it looked like they might have their work cut out, after a break went in the first few laps containing both Bernardo Colex (Tecos Trek UAG) and Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1). Both of these were dangerous to Tuft's yellow jersey, with Colex only seven seconds back on GC.

Fortunately, the group came back quickly, and then a few laps later a group of 10 non-dangerous riders rolled off the front and established a gap. In the group were Evan Elken, Sebastian Frey, Dan Timmerman, Kristian House, Dominique Perras, Luis Macias Hernandez, David O'loughlin, Matt Wilson, Sylvain Georges, Hichem Chaabane.

For a while they struggled to find a rhythm, and the gp hovered at 30 seconds, but then at the halfway point they began to pull away, eventually lapping the field with four laps to go.

"That first break was pretty worrying," commented Tuft "but the second one, once we heard the numbers [of the riders] it was perfect for us. We could sit back and save ourselves for tomorrow."

Amore E Vita-McDonalds made an effort for about ten laps in the second half of the race to pull the break back so they could set up their sprinter Yuriy Metlushenko, the stage 2 winner, but to no avail, and the group made contact with the back of the peloton just at the start of four to go.

The field was pulled with two laps to go, and then Elken made a gamble and attacked with a lap and a half left.

"After the field finished, I just rolled through hard," he explained. "I saw that I had a gap, and that they were playing a game behind me, so I just went for it. It's been a long time since a win, so I can't tell you how happy I am."

Tomorrow the riders take on the tough St Georges circuit race. Traditionally, this is the final stage, but the organizers have switched things around so that the last stage on Sunday will be the Quebec City one. We expect to see both Tecos and Team Type 1 putting Symmetrics to the test, to see if they can crack them and take the yellow jersey away from Svein Tuft.