June 16/10 16:59 pm - Tour de Beauce: Stage 2 PHOTOS, report and results

Posted by Editoress on 06/16/10
 

David Tanner was supposed to be leading out his Fly V Australia team mate Charles Dionne in the stage 2 sprint finish, but was so fast that he took the win himself. Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore e Vita) took second, while Andrew Pinfold (United Healthcare p/b Maxxis) improved one spot from stage 1 to take the final podium spot. Pinfold's result moved him into the lead in the Points competition, while stage one winner Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Heraklio-Murcia) continues to hold the remaining three jerseys - Yellow (race leader), Polka Dot (Climber) and Red (Best Young Rider).

Photos

The cold and gusty wind that blew all through stage one was absent for the 160 kilometre race that started and finished in Thetford Mines, north and west of St-Georges. This, plus tired legs from chasing the day before, meant that a break was able to roll off the front less than 20 kilometres into the race with little response from the leading teams.

The break was initiated by Jamie Sparling (Team Canada) and Javier Megias (Team Type 1). Megias had been reinstated to the race after initially being pulled after stage one, when he was misdirected off course and came in outside the time limit.

The pair had counter-attacked an earlier break, and were quickly joined by six others - Jean-Sebastien Perron (Garneau Club Chausseres), Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy), Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia), John Murphy (BMC Racing), Walker Savidge (Felt-Holowesko), and Flavio Pasquino (Restore Cycling Team Holland).

Initially, the gap was no more than 30 seconds, but the field was plagued with mechanicals from all teams, and as the peloton slowed, the break slowly slipped away. The gap went up to two minutes and then over three, and that was too much for Heraklio-Murcia, who upped the pace, assisted by Amore e Vita, who have Sergiy Grechyn in second on GC.

By the 120 kilometre mark the break was clearly lagging, and the gap was down to just over a minute. The riders from top teams SpiderTech (Parisien) and BMC (Murphy) peeled off to drop back to the peloton, and when Perron attacked, only Sparling, Savidge and Rolfe went with him.

This group, powered in particular by Sparling, pushed the lead back to 1:40 with 20 kilometres to go, but the teams behind were sensing a chance for their sprinters, and as the race re-entered Thetford Mines the peloton was closing.

"I was super stoked," said Sparling. "It was a goal of mine to roll in a major break. Hopefully there will continue to be a Canadian national team flavour to the breakaways."

The there were three 3.4 kilometre circuits to finish, and Sparling led the four frontrunners through the finish line with a 30 second gap. The chase caught them on the first lap, setting the stage for a sprint. Amore e Vita went to the front on lap two, but it was Fly V Australia at the front in the final straight.

Tanner was leading to set up Dionne, when a woman walked out in front of the field with 50 metres to go. She was literally less than 10 metres from the leaders, who were closing at 60 kilometres an hour, and seemingly oblivious. Fortunately, she managed to clear the lead six on the right side of the road, and those further back and in the middle of the road slowed as she continued across in front of a disbelieving crowd.

"It was a pretty good day and the team kept me out of the wind," explained Pinfold. "I came up a little short, but I'm happy with the consolation prize of the white jersey."

With respect to the woman walking onto the course during the sprint, Pinfold said: "Every year I see something different, I haven't seen that [before] and hopefully I never will again. I saw her, but the sprint was to the right and she was walking left, so I figured if she kept walking we would probably clear her."

Race Notes:

- Tomorrow is the queen stage of Beauce - the ride from St-Georges to the five kilometre climb culminating at the top of Mont Megantic. We should start to get a clear picture of who is in contention after this stage.

- As we explained in our live report, both riders injured in yesterday's crash have no lasting injuries. Team Canada's Matt Bell suffered a severe concussion, but slept well, according to national coach Vincent Jourdain. He sustained scrapes and bruises to both knees when he went over the bars on a gravel descent in stage one, and has 28 stitches around his right eye, mainly from his sunglasses. Remarkably, his bike is mostly okay.