August 12/11 17:27 pm - Tour de l'Ain: Stage 3, Tuft moves to 6th on GC

Posted by Editoress on 08/12/11
 

Results from the 4th day of racing at the Tour de l'Ain in France won by Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil -DCM Pro Cycling Team). Svein Tuft (Team Spidertech powered by C10) finished 12 at 24 seconds back and moves up to 6th in the overall standings

Spidertech DS Kevin Field Reports

Today's stage was an absolute ‘gem’ of a bike race through the Jura Mountains.  Reducing stage distances to 130 km and team sizes to six makes for incredibly dynamic racing on a course like this.

The cols were around 1000 metres - not extreme altitude - the stage included four categorized climbs with 2-3 climbs between the KOMs. With our climbing specialists competing at altitude in Utah, today was a chance for our all-rounders and sprinters to further build their climbing strength ahead of the upcoming World Tour races in Quebec City and Montreal on September 9 and 11.

Road Captain Svein Tuft had perhaps the best day in the mountains of his entire career. He simply put his head down and went on the attack all day – consistently riding in front and finishing with Tour de France and Giro standouts in 12th place on the stage. He is now 6th on GC heading into the tomorrow’s final Queen Stage atop the infamous Col du Colombiere.

Canadian U23 Champion Hugo Houle showed incredible grit and promise riding in front alongside Svein for 75km over the first three categorized climbs and some of the hardest parts of the stage before fading back to save some reserves for tomorrow.  Very promising riding, which bodes well for the upcoming Tour de l'Avenir. Returning U23 World Road Champion bronze medalist Guillaume Boivin continues to put his tendonitis behind him while being careful not to over-extend which is delicate balance.  After putting in 100 kilometres over the first five peaks, Boivin retired from the race feeling on-schedule for both the Canadian World Tour races and the World Championships in Denmark as well as his next race the Tour du Limousin.

The rest of our fast men gritted it out without over-extending themselves, as sprinters do in a true mountain stage. Today was a complete GC shakeup and we expect more of the same with the summit finish on one of the most famous cols of the Tour de France - the Col du Colombière.