June 16/24 17:30 pm - Burnett Wins Tour de Beauce
Posted by Editoress on 06/16/24
Josh Burnett (MitoQ-NZ) held off multiple challenges on Sunday in the final stage of Tour de Beauce to become the first New Zealand rider to win the overall title since Graeme Miller in 1990. Conn McDunphy (Team Skyline) dropped the rest of his breakaway companions in the final 20 kilometres to win the stage through the streets of St-Georges. Canadians finished second and third on the stage, with Jerome Gauthier (Ecoflo Chronos) holding off Sasha Renaud Tremblay (TaG Cycling) for second. Felix Bouchard (N'SIDE) was the top Canadian in the overall standings, finishing fifth.
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The 10.2 kilometre urban circuit through St-Georges has upset the race standings more than once, with the deceptively difficult course including a 1.5 kilometre climb, as well as numerous twists and turns requiring constant braking and accelerating. The riders covered 12 laps.
Burnett, winner on Mont-Megantic, came into the stage with a 44 second lead over Tyler Stites (Project Echelon), 52 seconds ahead of Ian Lopez de san Roman (Aevolo) and 59 seconds on Laurent Gervais (Echelon Project). Unfortunately, Gervais crashed out of the race early in the stage, removing a 1-2 attack option for Project Echelon. Felix Hamel (Ecoflo Chronos), fourth overall going into the final stage also dropped out of the race.
The first attack took place within 20 metres of the start, and by Lap 2 a group of nine was clear, eventually swelling to a maximum of 15. None of the big GC threats were in the break, so it was allowed some leeway, going to 30 seconds, then 50, and eventually 1:15, before settling in at just under a minute.
The group contained McDunphy, Nathan Pruner and Renaud Tremblay from TaG, three N'SIDE riders, two from Expeditor, two from Project Echelon, one from Quebec, Gauthier and a teammate from Ecoflo Chronos, one from X-Speed and Evan Russell from Toronto Hustle.
Until McDunphy attacked, the group rode steadily together. Behind them, Project Echelon, Aevolo, Expeditor, N'SIDE and others tested the strength of Burnett and his squad. While Burnett did gradually lose a few teammates, so did the others, and the Yellow Jersey was able to respond to any serious attacks quickly. By the final 25 kilometres, it appeared that the challengers had worn themselves out, shredding most of the peloton in the process. McDunphy came across solo for the win, moving up from 17th to 12th in the final standings.
There were no changes to the top-3 in the final general classification, with Ian Lopez de san Roman remaining in the lead for the Best Young Rider competition. However, both the KoM Jersey and Points Jersey changed hands. Arthur Liardet (N'SIDE), who had led the Climber's competition from Stage 1, did not finish, putting the jersey in the hands of Liam Flanagan (Skyline). The Points Jersey switched from Tyler Stites - who had worn it since winning the opening stage - to his teammate Brendan Rhim, by one point. Team Skyline also took the Team GC award.
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