June 12/26 21:34 pm - Paredes Regains Yellow Jersey on Megantic

Posted by Editoress on 06/12/26
 

Once again, Mont-Megantic has reshuffled the standings at the Tour de Beauce, with Andres Paredes (Medellin-EPM) retaking the leader's jersey he first wore after Stage 1. Paredes' teammate Andres Pineda took the stage win after pacing his team leader up the final climb. However, the real story of the day, was the incredible ride by Tim McBirney (Project Echelon), who rode solo for nearly 130 kilometres and was only caught by the Medellin duo in the final 500 metres of the stage, finishing third.

The Megantic stage usually sees a break go off in the early kilometres, that opens a substantial gap, only to see almost all it pulled back before the final 5.7 kilometre climb, when the big guns start attacking each other. This year followed a different narrative, with a group of eight getting away early, including the KoM jersey holder, Samuel Couture (Cannondale Echelon p/b 4iiii), because of the two categorized climbs in the first 25 kilometres. Once those had been contested, the break lost its impetus and fell back to the bunch, where overall race leader Adam Lewis' APS ProCycling by Team Cadence team was setting tempo.

It wasn't too much later that McBirney rolled off the front, and there was little interest in chasing. He quickly gained a minute, then another, and was four minutes up within ten kilometres. The bunch wasn't interested at all, taking a nature break and slowing down to feed from team cars in the humid 30C conditions. The gap would eventually reach seven minutes before a (semi) serious attempt was made to limit the damage.

In the final 50 kilometres the gap was coming down, but slowly, stuck at over five minutes for a long time. Starting the climb, McBirney still had 3:25, so it look like it might be possible. For a large rider (over 190 cm) after all day out on his own, he rode the climb very strongly, but the Medellin riders started to surge, bringing the time down to under a minute with a kilometre to go. Everyone at the finish was willing him to hold on, but it was not to be, as Pineda and Paredes went by to finish 1-2, with McBirney still only a few seconds back. The yellow jersey holder finished 12th, 57 seconds down.

In the overall standings, with two stages to go, Paredes leads teammate Pineda by 38 seconds, with a three-way tie for third at 50 seconds - Kent Ross (Cascadia), Lewis and McBirney. The top Canadian is Leo Roy (Entreposage Bluebird Quebec en velo) in sixth at 52 seconds.

Samuel Couture remains in the green Climber's jersey, as does Paredes continue to hold the white Points jersey. There is a change in the red jersey of Best Young Rider, with Killian O'Brien (Team Skyline) taking over that jersey from Marshall Erwood (Whoosh-NZ Cycling Project).

Saturday will be a completely new stage for Beauce, with the circuit race in Quebec City replaced by a time trial (also in Quebec City). It is only eight kilometres long, but ends with a steep climb. Paredes' lead is not likely in jeopardy, but there could be some shuffles in the remaining top-5 spots.

Tour de Beauce: Stage 3 results