June 22/01 2:45 am - GP de Beauce Reports from Stage 5

Posted by Editoress on 06/22/01
 

Grand Prix Cyclist Poste Canada de Beauce - Stage 5

Saint-Georges/Lac-Mégantic 170.1 Km

The much anticipated Mont Mégantic stage has started under cold and dreary skies. Yes, it is raining and the temperature is in the mid teens.

108 riders started today. Notable losses after yesterday's Stage 4 are Dominique Rollin of Sympatico.ca, who went down in that early stage crash that took Svein Tuft down too. Dominique did not fare as well as Svein as he is now sporting a broken collarbone.

Stage Profile & Map








9 am

• 3 km in, 2 riders (Jason Crookham Sympatico.ca and James Perry IBM) made a brief attempt to go, but were quickly brought back.

• At 14 km, the trend continues. Lots of attempts to get away, but Team Mercury-Viatel is chasing everything down. The leaders jersey is theirs to protect, or lose today. The rain has turned to a drizzle.


9:15am

• At 18km, 4 riders went away and at 23 km were joined by 3 others. The gap is now 15 seconds. In the break are Zbigniew Wyrzykowski (Pol) MROZ, Jose Luis Castel (Mex) Tecos, Morten Hegreberg (Nor) Ville De Charleroi, Christophe Gauthier (Fra) Saint-Quentin Oktos, Siro Camponogara (Ita) Navigators, Simon Kessler (RSA) IBM and Ross Hooker (Can) Team Canada.. With so many team represented, Mercury may have a hard time getting much co-operation in a chase.


9:20pm

• Four more riders joined the break at the 29 km mark. Antonio Rizzi (Ita) Mapei, Arquimedes Lam (Mex) Tecos, Chris Fisher (USA) Saturn and Daniel Spence (RSA) IBM. By 32 km the gap is up to 40 seconds.


9:50am

• At the first KOM (41km) Ross Hooker (Can) Team Canada and Simon Kessler (RSA) IBM had been dropped. Philippe Koehler (Fra) Mapei and Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada were attempting to bridge.

• At 47 km, there are 5 riders remaining in the break: Christophe Gauthier (Fra) Saint-Quentin Oktos, Jose Luis Castel (Mex) Tecos, Chris Fisher (USA) Saturn, Antonio Rizzi (Ita) Mapei and Zbigniew Wyrzykowski (Pol) MROZ. They seem to be working well. There is a small group of dropped riders at 49 seconds back. The main pack is now at 2 minutes.


10am

• 58km. The break has been joined by Philippe Koehler (Fra) Mapei and Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada. Czeslaw immediatley went to the front and "re-energized" the riders. The time gap is 1:17 to Siro Camponogara (Ita) Navigators and Simon Kessler (RSA) IBM who are chasing and 2:33 to the main pack.

Dominique Perras (Can) Ficonseils-RCC Conseils Assurances has just had his second flat of the day.


11:05am

• 75 km. As the leaders passed the 2nd KOM of the day, they had 4 minutes on the peloton. The 2 chasers had been caught by the pack.

• 90 km. The leaders have just gone through the feed zone. The time gap is 5 minutes. Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada. and the 2 Mapei riders are doing a lot of work. Czeslaw is really enjoying being in the break. He has been hamming it up for the photographers. Every time the press van moves in for a photo, Czeslaw goes to the front.

Mercury is at the front of the peloton setting tempo. They are not too worried as no one in the break has a hope of challenging the leaders jersey. Most are well over 30 minutes back.


11:55am

• 111 km. The leaders had just gone through the town of Lac-Mégantic and the gap was steady at just over 5 minutes.

• 120 km. The gap has increased to 6:07. The weather has started to improve. The low clouds are lifting and the sun is starting to poke through. But, a stiff crosswind has started and will become a headwind when they make their final change of direction at Woburn and head for Mont-Mégantic and the finish. A report just came over the radios from the finish that winds at the top of the mountain are registering between 60 and 70 kmph.

12:15pm

• 125km. The break dropped #55, Jose Luis Castel (Mex) Tecos. He had not been doing hi share of the work, so he had to go.

• 130km. The gap is at 7 minutes with 40 km and, a wee bit of a climb, to go.

1pm

• 3 km to go. There are 3 riders remaining in the break. Philippe Koehler (Fra) Mapei, Christophe Gauthier (Fra) Saint-Quentin Oktos and Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada. The 3 dropped the MROZ rider at the base of the climb. Fisher went 1 km into the climb and Rizzi shortly after. Gauthier is setting the pace on the climb. The gap to the peloton was still 7 minutes at the base of the climb.


1:20pm


• Philippe Koehler (Fra) Mapei takes the stage. Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada fights off Antonio Rizzi (Ita) Mapei. Rizzi who was dropped at about 1.5 km into the climb, came back and charged ahead toward the finish, taking his teammate with him, forcing Czeslaw to chase.

Back in the peloton, Moninger attacked and was chased by Perras and Barry.

unofficial
1. Philippe Koehler (Fra) Mapei
2. Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) Team Canada
3. Antonio Rizzi (Ita) Mapei
4. Chris Fisher (USA) Saturn
5. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury-Viatel
6. Zbigniew Wyrzykowski (Pol) MROZ
7. Chris Baldwin (USA) Navigators
8. Michael Barry (Can) Saturn