Magner wins opening stage at Tour de Beauce

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Rally UHC Cycling's Tyler Magner beat Floyd's Pro Cycling rival Nickolas Zukowsky by a tire's width on the opening 177 kilometre stage of the 34th edition of the Tour de Beauce, to don the Yellow JerseyWednesday in Saint-Georges.

Magner and Zukowsky, along with Brendan Rhim (Arapahoe-Hincapie) bridged up to an early three-rider breakaway at the 100 kilometre mark. The original break contained Adam Jamieson (Team Canada), Bruno Langlois (Brunei Continental) and Ignacio Prado (Canels Specialized), and went clear 30 kilometres into the stage. They quickly opened a commanding gap that stretched to six minutes before Arapahoe-Hincapie went to the front on the KOM climb and splintered the field.

Twenty riders initially went clear of the field in the chase, which knocked two minutes of the lead very quickly. All but Magner, Zukowsky and Rhim drifted back to the bunch, with the three remaining chasers catching the leaders within 10 kilometres.

The six were working smoothly together and still had a three-minute gap with 25 kilometres to go, but the bunch was chasing and the lead began shrinking. Jamieson was having problems with his cogset, and he and Prado fell off the pace with five kilometres to go. The gap was shrinking to just over a minute as they entered the final kilometre, but the break would stay away.

At 400 metres to go, the riders made a right onto an uphill finishing straight. Magner and Zukowsky battled side by side all the way to the line, with both throwing their bikes. Rhim took third just behind them. After time bonuses are factored in, Magner leads Zukowsky by four seconds, with Rhim a further two seconds in arrears. Prado took the Sprint jersey and Jamieson the Polka Dot climber's jersey.

"The first hour was very hard until it calmed down after the break went," said Magner. "But then Arapahoe did a really big effort on the KOM and blew the race apart. The three of us bridged across to the break after that; I think the three of us had different interests. Nick [Zukowsky] was thinking about GC while Brendan [Rhim] and I were thinking more about the stage. Nick was really coming up on me in the end, so I had to dig pretty hard."

Zukowsky took the Best Young Rider jersey, less than a week after winning the overall title at the GP Cycliste de Saguenay.

"Last week was the biggest result of my career, so I was coming in here with a lot of confidence," he said. "The race was pretty aggressive, and next thing I knew I was up the road again with a couple of strong guys. It played out well in the end, and I almost got Ty. But, it's a pretty good position to be in with the stages coming up."

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