June 16/06 4:56 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 4a

Posted by Editoress on 06/16/06
 

Tour de Beauce Quebec

Photos part one, Part two from this morning's ITT

As expected, Navigators recovered from the momentary lapse of attention which saw them lose the yellow jersey on Wednesday at the Tour de Beauce to regain the top position in the 15 kilometre time trial stage this morning. Danny Pate (TIAA-CREF) continues to impress with a strong win in the stage, but Valeriy Kobzarenko's second place, 16 seconds behind Pate, was enough to move him back into the lead, after Stefan Parinussa (Sparkasse), the former leader, could manage no better than 23rd. Pate's excellent ride moved him up to second overall, 16 seconds behind Kobzarenko.

The weather continues to be "un-Beauce-like", meaning sunny and warm - regular attendees are used to cold, wet conditions. However, the gusting wind and rolling climbs made this a tough course. "It was hard on the way out" admitted Pate. "The uphill and the headwind meant you had to fight the whole way. And then, the tailwind on the way back meant that everyone was at top speed on the downhills, so there wasn't much chance to make up time there. I had a good ride, just balancing it so you never go too hard and blow up."

Kobzarenko agreed with this analysis: "The wind was a problem on the way out, for sure. I only went 90% on the first hill because I wasn't sure if I could keep it up at 100% the whole way after being in the front for so long yesterday. Afterwards I thought that I could maybe have gone faster, but you don't know at the time."

Kobzarenko's team mate Sergey Lagutin finished third, 33 seconds behind Pate, with Canadian national time trial champion Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) 4th; a bare six-hundredths in front of Glen Chadwick (Navigators). Tuft has been struggling up until this point, taking antibiotics for a respiratory infection picked up in El Salvador, and just off a plane from the Pan Am cycling championships in Brazil. However, he is finally starting to regain the form which saw him finish second to Nathan O'Neill last year at Beauce.

"The doctor told me that I could expect to see an improvement after seven days (of antibiotics), and today is the seventh day! It is starting to come around, and I'm happy with fourth - I was fed up with feeling so terrible. When I got on the bike this morning I rode hard to the start, and felt like I had gas in the tank."

Beauce still has two hard circuit races (plus a criterium which doesn't count towards GC this evening), so does Pate think he might have a chance to erase his 16 second deficit? "I would have to have a really good last couple of days. Anything's possible, but they have a strong team, so it will be a tall order to do it."

Race Notes

- Navigators currently holds all jerseys except the Young Rider (Brent Bookwalter - Priority Health), plus has a commanding eight minute lead over Tecos Trek VH in the team standings. No one at the race organization can remember that last time one team was so dominant.

- The David O'Loughlin (Navigators) "did he abandon or was he disqualified?" story from stage 3 has been somewhat resolved. According to team manager Ed Beamon, he was told by the chief commissaire during the stage that "either he (O'Loughlin) is out or you (Beamon) are" for admittedly blatant drafting and assistance. Beamon pulled O'Loughlin, but admitted afterwards he should have left the rider in and gone to the Race Jury afterwards. "Once he stopped riding that was it, there was nothing we could do." A member of the Commission said "From our perspective, the rider abandoned the race, so there is nothing to discuss", while Beamon was muttering darkly about "Commissaire mafiosi tactics." Stay tuned for another installment of As the Wheel Turns...

- Svein Tuft said that knowing the course certainly helped (he finished second to O'Neill on the same time trial circuit last year), but a bigger factor in doing well was having a powermeter to measure effort. "With a short time trial like 15 kilometres there is no conserving, you've just got to give 'er. Powermeters come in very handy, so you can make sure you are always on pace - I know some guys went out too hard on the outward section and blew up. Even on the descents (coming back) you've got to push it, and a meter can make sure you do that."

Tuft says that the team has abandoned hopes of a high GC result (highest placed is Christian Meier in 33rd, 11 minutes back) and "we're going for stages now."