Cooke triumphs on Mont-Mégantic

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Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclist Racing Team) is still in yellow after the mountain finish to stage 3 of the Tour de Beauce, but the race is far from won going into Friday's 20km time trial.

Mancebo finished second on the Tour's 164km queen stage to the top of Mont-Mégantic Thursday, seven seconds behind winner Matthew Cooke (Exergy), but Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) crossed the line on Mancebo's wheel and sits just 10 seconds behind on the overall standings going into Friday's time trial.

"It was not a good day for us, but not bad," said Mancebo, who laid the foundation for his overall victory last year on the Mégantic stage. "The rival now will be Sutherland – now he's the favourite. But I'm still in yellow. Tomorrow we'll see."

Sutherland has been having a strong season, finishing 13th in the Amgen Tour of California and winning the Tour of the Gila, but he was making no predictions for the overall.

"We'll see after the time trial," said the Australian, who's racing in Beauce for the first time but has been leaning on the experience of his teammates. "That's the benefit of having guys like (two-time winner) Ben (Day), who've won here before."

Even if they can't take the lead in the time trial, UnitedHealthcare is in the best tactical position going into the final two stages, with both Sutherland and Marc De Maar – who won two stages and finished third overall in 2010 – expected to be within seconds of the overall lead.

Mancebo’s other key rivals lost significant time on the climb. Day finished at 1:17, while Svein Tuft (Canadian National Team) lost 1:41. Both of them are strong time triallists, but the deficit might be too much to make up.

Fast and furious from the start

Like the day before, the stage got off to a fast start under repeated attacks. This time it was at the 23km mark that a group of five formed out front that everyone was comfortable with, and after a half-hearted chase the peloton let them go. Matt Higgins (Node4-Giordana Racing), Russell Hampton (Raleigh-GAC), David Stephens (Garneau-Quebecor-Norton Rose), William Blackburn (Team Médique p/b Silber Investments) and Nic Hamilton (Canadian National Team) set down to work and the gap gradually grew to 5:30 at the first KOM sprint after 65km.

The only GC threat in the break was Hampton – a former British national track team member – so Competitive Cyclist was content to put two riders on the front of the peloton to keep the break from gaining too much time.

Blackburn was dropped over the climb and the remaining quartet managed to extend their lead to six minutes at the 90km mark, when Competitive Cyclist put a third rider on the front shortly before the feed zone and the gap began to tumble. The break split over the second KOM and the series of short, steep climbs that followed, and by 25km to go Hampton was alone in front with a two-minute lead.

It would never be enough to hold off the climbers, especially once UnitedHealthcare joined in the chase on the false flat leading to the base of the mountain, and the breakaway was caught as the climb got steep with five kilometres to go.

That's when the real racing began. Under pressure from Sutherland and Sebastian Salas (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) the front group was whittled down to 25 riders, then 12, and with three kilometres to go just eight riders remained in front: Mancebo, Sutherland, Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare), Cooke, Hugo Houle (Team SpiderTech p/b C10), Salas, Christopher Butler (Champion System Pro Cycling Team) and Christian Meier (Canadian National Team).

Soon after, Cooke launched his winning move. "I really just hit it with 2k to go," Cooke said. "The pace slowed a little bit and I didn't hesitate."

As Meier fell off the pace, De Maar was the next to go, but he couldn't close the gap to Cooke and he was brought back after a series of attacks by Houle and Mancebo.

But it was too late to close the gap to Cooke, who crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Mancebo and Sutherland, and another three seconds back, Houle. Butler rounded out the top five at 12 seconds.

Despite his good form after a block of training at altitude, Cooke was noncommittal about his chances tomorrow, saying he hopes for a top-10 result. "I think I can do a good time trial," said Cooke, who moved into second overall on general classification, three seconds behind Mancebo. "I don't think I can do a great time trial."

Race notes

Hugo Houle could be a dark horse for a podium position in the Tour after riding into the fourth spot overall. The 21-year-old is a two-time Canadian U23 time trial champion and says he's in great form. "Since the beginning of the week I've felt really good," he said before pulling on the best young rider jersey. "I really wanted to test myself against guys like Sutherland and Mancebo, because they're among the best climbers in the world."

Mancebo was quick to credit his teammates for the work they did in controlling the break in today's stage. Ian Burnett and David Williams did the bulk of the chasing to keep the gap steady, and the break's lead really dropped once Max Jenkins joined them on the front. Jenkins was so strong that Sutherland shouted "Maxi J's on fire!" to Competitive Cyclist director Gord Fraser during the stage.