September 10/10 14:00 pm - ProTour Quebec race UPDATES

Posted by Editoress on 09/10/10
 

The sun came out just before the start in Quebec City and the temp shot up to 19 degrees C. Fans along the side of the course are 4 deep in places and if you did not know it was Quebec City, it has all the atmosphere of Europe.


For Canada it is:  Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) Team Canada p/b SpiderTech with a full compliment of of eight riders : Dominique Rollin, Guillaume Boivin, Charles Dionne, Keven Lacombe, Bruno Langlois, Francois Parisien, Will Routley and David Veilleux.

The race today is  15 laps, of the 12.6km course with 186m of altitude per lap, for a total of 189km.

Lap 1
From the gun  Francois Parisien (Team Canada/Spidertch) attacked alone and the peloton quickly jumped to bring him back. Lampre and Liquigas took the lead and quickly brought him back . They set a high pace for the early part of the lap.

Lap 2

Just before the end of the 1st lap a group of  7 riders went away and were maintaining a gap of ~ 25sec on the peloton - Francois Parisien is there.
The lead group increased to 14 and but the gap dropped to  19sec lead on the peloton 

A crash - an Astana Rider hit a manhole cover as he attempted an attack from the peloton

Dom Rollin  had a minor mechanical and they are raised his saddle height - from the team car.

Hitting the climb on lap two irider in the brar include: Popovych, (Radioshack) Van de Walle (Quick Step) Jens Voig (Saxo Bank)t. Loys of flats including Rabobank teeam leader Gesink who took a bike from a teammate.

Lap 3
Starting lap after ~ 35min on the roade - the leader group has just 14 sec on the peloton.

HUGE cheers from the crowds as the riders hit the line to start the 4th lap

Lap 4
The lead  group includes: Jakob Fuglsang (SaxoBank) Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ), Markel Irizar (Radioshack),  Valerio Agnoli and Elia Viviani (Liquigas,) Sebastien Minard (Cofidis), Jurgen Van de Walle (Quickstep), Laurent Didier (Saxo Bank,) Dominik Nerz (Milram), (Liquigas), François Parisien (Canada/SpiderTech), Sebastien Turgot (BBOX), Bram Tankink (Rabobank).


Lap 5
The gap went up to 3.5 min as the leaders come thru to start their fifth lap.  Astana is at the front trying to initiate a chase.

Rollin had another  mechanical - this time his rear derailleur and changed bikes and chased hard to try and back on.

Lap 6
The gaps approaching the 4 min mark from the leaders to the peloton as they headed out to start the sixth lap - Rollin was back on.

Lap 7  18:37 lap time

Lap 8 starting an not much change.  Gap over 4 min

Lap 10

Finishing the 9th lap and the gap is down to ~ 3 min

Lap 11

Finishing lap 10 and the gap is 2:42.  The sky is overcast again and the temperature is dropping

The lead group has split and now there are 7 leaders, with a small group of dropped riders chasing.  Parisien did not make the split.

The crowd is really loving this race.  When the riders come through the finish line the cheers are deafening

4 to go - 50 km

Leaders are: Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank), Christopher Horner (Team Radioshack), Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo), Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step), Kasper Klostergaard ( Saxo Bank), Alfredo Balloni (Lampre - Farnese Vini), Dominik Nerz (Team Milram).

Ivan Basso has dropped out

There is a bit of a wind starting and it has the feel of racin

The leaders have a gap of 1:38 to a small group of chasers (leftovers from the early break and 2:05 to the peloton

3 to go

Gap from the leaders to teh peloton is now 1:20

2 to go

Jakob Fuglsang (Saxobank is away and being chased down by Will Routley (Canada/SpiderTech), but the peloton is breathing down their necks, with Milram at teh front

Dries Devenyns (Quickstep) has joined Fuglsang and they are working well together.  The peloton has them in their sitghts on teh flas before the climb up Cote de la Montagne

Hesjedal has attacked from the peloton and has now caught the break. Cunego (Lampre) has gone with him

One to go

Cunego is not happy.  Gesturing at Fugslang  Breshel

There is a chase group formed with Gesink, David Veilleux and 4 more

Hesjedal has his head down

Gesink and Wegman have now joined the leaders

Hesjedal, Cunego and Wegman have 8 seconds as they head to the line

They are caught and and attack by Voeckler and he is clear

Thomas Voeckler wins

Top 5

1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom

2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky

3  Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank

4  Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin Transitions

5 Miguel Minguez (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi