Tanner turns lead-out into victory in Beauce

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David Tanner’s (Fly V Australia) lead-out turned into a bunch sprint victory on the streets of Thetford-Mines, stage two of the Tour de Beauce. The Australian youngster outpaced Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore e Vita) who placed second and Andrew Pinfold (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis) in third.

"I’m not really surprised to get the win today because I’ve been on good condition for a long time and knew that a win was just around the corner," Tanner said. "But, I was meant to be leading Charles [Dionne] out and I looked over my should but couldn’t see him. My teammate Jay Thomson went with about one kilometre to go and I followed him. The Amore e Vita guy started his sprint a little too early and gave me a perfect run to the line."

Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Heraklio-Murcia) maintained his overall race lead along with the heading up the Best Climber and Best Young Rider competitions. Pinfold is now leading the Best Sprinter and Best Canadian Rider competition by virtue of placing third on the day and fourth in stage one.

"I have to thank my team for how hard they worked today," Serrano Fernandez said. "We were a little worried at the end because of the breakaway that continued on but we received help from Amore e Vita so it came back to a field sprint. That team has a good sprinter and they wanted to win the stage so they gave us a hand today."

The sprinters narrowly missed hitting a woman who walked across the street and did not notice the peloton barreling down the finishing straightaway with 50 metres to the line. The woman did not get hit however her presence on the roadway undoubtedly caused some hesitation amongst the sprinters.

Spanish and Italian teams reel in the breaks

Stage two of the Tour de Beauce offered a 160 km out and back road race from Thetford-Mines. This stage was constantly up or down with very little flat sections and included two Sprint zones and two King of the Mountain (KOM) ascents. The peloton passed by several of the county's notorious sugar bush farms where the maple trees were tapped with a series of tubbing used to collect the sweet syrup during the spring months.

After taking a wrong turn in the previous day’s stage, Javier Megias (Team Type 1) was reinstated into the second stage by race officials. He received a 15 percent disadvantage from the time of the main peloton. Megias kicked off the early breakaway with Jamie Sparling (Team Canada) in the opening kilometres of the race.

The pair were joined by Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia), John Murphy (BMC Racing), Walker Savidge (Holowesko Partners), Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy), Jean-Sebastien Perron (Garneau Club Chausseres) and Flavio Pasquino (Restore Cycling Team Holland).

"We wanted to try for an early break because it is always a chance that it stays away," Perron said. "We didn’t know what was going to happen until the end. There were teams with strong sprinters still in the back and so was the leader of the race. We went conservative for most of the break. We figured that if we rolled really hard the field would go hard too, so we kept a good pace but not to hard."

The eight-man breakaway picked up some momentum within the first 20km of the race and gained two minutes ahead of the main field. Parisien out paced Murphy in a playful sprint to the top of the first KOM ascents located in Lemesurier. Sparling took full points at the first intermediate Sprint zone located in Ponthriand. Megias won the second and final KOM located just before the city of Saint-Jean-de-Brebeuf, the mid-way point in the race at 71 kilometre mark.

The breakaway maintained a two and half minute lead until the second KOM ascent where team Heraklio-Murica worked hard to reduce the time gap to one minute in an effort to protect its leader Serrano Fernandez. Its workers received help from the Amore e Vita squad whose rider Sergiy Grechyn sat in second place overall.

After more than 120 km off the front, Perron attacked his breakaway companions and brought with him Savidge, Rolfe and Sparling as they approaching the second and final intermediate Sprint of the day. The four escapees gained nearly two minute heading into the finishing circuits and the remaining riders were reabsorbed into the peloton before the start of the three finishing three circuits in Thetford-Mines.

"Everyone was looking at each other and we didn’t know if it was going to last until the end." Perron said. "I had amazing legs and wanted to try. Three guys followed me and we gained time. But we were caught with two laps to go."

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