June 19/00 10:17 am - Beauce Final Story/Photos, Summer Session, New Coach

Posted by Editor on 06/19/00
 

GP Beauce Ends with a Bang

The 15th Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce has ended, and what an ending. Three new leaders in as many days, with the jersey changing hands the same number of times on the road during the final stage. Czech national champion Tomas Konecny (Wustenrot-ZVVZ) was the overall victor, with Saturn's Harm Jansen taking the final stage.

After Friday's tough Mont Megantic stage, where Italian Stefano Della Santa (Alexia Alluminio) took over the lead, Mercury's Scott Moninger snatched it away from him in Saturday morning's 15 kilometre time trial. The 50 kilometre criterium in the evening had no effect on the top standings, so it all came down to the final 170 kilometre stage in and around the town of St Georges de Beauce on Sunday.

Mercury was in for a real battle - Konecny was only 8 seconds back, and his ZVVZ team mate Rene Andrle was at 49 seconds. Plus, Jansen was just 1:19 down. The attacks began 30 kilometres into the race, with Saturn being the most aggressive. At the 40 kilometre mark a group of 5 had broken clear, including Jansen and fifth place overall Petr Bilek (Wustenrot-ZVVZ). The break hovered at the 40 second mark for a good 30 kilometres, before the chasing Mercury squad started to show cracks.

The time split reached a maximum of 2:10 (making Jansen leader on the road), before the French Ville Charleroi-New System team came up to give Mercury a slight hand. This brought the gap down to 30 seconds with 50 kilometres left, and then Saturn played their second card; sending Mike Barry across to bolster the break. Barry went across quickly, but took Andrle with him - Mercury's problems were getting worse, not better.

The gap opened again, with 3 Saturns and 2 ZVVZs in the 8 rider lead group; up to 1:25 (so Andrle was road leader). Again, Mercury strove to shut it down, and brought it back to 30 seconds as the riders entered the tough 4.5 kilometre finishing circuit, with a 1 kilometre 9% climb to the finish line. The break appeared to be contained, but the cost was great to Mercury - their riders were all blown, and Moninger was on his own.

"They caught us when we were vulnerable", said Moninger. "I was forced to work to keep Andrle in check, and Konecny got a free ride." Konecny made the most of it, attacking Moninger decisively on the final lap, to come in third on the stage and 35 seconds in front on the Mercury rider, to take the yellow jersey. It got worse: Andrle finished second to Jansen, and had enough of a time gap to overtake second place, relegating Moninger to third. An exciting, and fitting end to Canada's premier stage race.

Photos

The Break

The Break

The Break

The Break

Andrle, Konecny, Moninger.


Whistler Summer Session is alive and well.

Get ready for 10 days of serious bike action from July 7-16.

You haven't heard lots about us and it is because we have been extremely busy over the past few months.. we secured a UCI Triple Mountain Bike World Cup for Whistler for 2001 and 2002.

We are getting ready for Summer Session 2000. This year The Gravity Tour will kick off the festivities on July 7-9 with events such as the downhill, dual slalom, chainless downhill, biker cross, in-line skating and road races. The downhill events can be entered either as single event or as a stage race.

The second weekend (July 14-16) will feature the Whistler International Classic with events such as the cross-country, dirt criterium, technical time trial and the fat tire criterium, trail running events and a skateboard competition. A BMX dirt jumping competition has been added to this year's schedule. Once again, you can enter the events individually or as a stage race.

The mid-week action includes recreational events for all ages such as Kayaking, Wakeboarding, group rides and the local Loonie race series. Check the program for entertainment and the live music schedule.

On-line registration for Summer Session is now open. You can visit our updated website at www.summersession.com to get the full schedule and register via our secure server. On line registration is also available via Canadian Cyclist at www.canadiancyclist.com

See you in Whistler.

Claire and Marika
Team Management Inc.


New Coach at PacificSport
(courtesy PacificSport National Cycling Centre)

The National Cycling Center in Victoria has a new assistant coach, Mr. Houshang Amiri. Mr Amiri is a level four NCCP Coach and has over 25 years of experience as a cyclist and coach. He began at the center in April 2000.