Lyttle captures opening stage and race lead at Tour de Beauce

Scott Lyttle (PureBlack Racing) out-paced his breakaway companions to win the opening stage of the Tour de Beauce held in Lac-Etchemin, Quebec. The New Zealander crossed the line ahead of his teammate Tim Gudsell, who placed second on the day, with Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b C10) finishing in third.

"The was a great opportunity for me to give a victory to my PureBlack Racing teammates," Lyttle told Cyclingnews. "It is fantastic to win the first stage."

Lyttle will start the 162km stage two in Thetford-Mines as the overall race leader ahead of Gudsell and Parisien. He is also leading the King of the Mountain (KOM), Best Young Rider AND Points classifications.

"Winning the 10-second time bonus at the end of the stage was key for us," Lyttle said. "I knew that would be enough to take the leader's jersey today. I was actually trying to lead-out my teammate Gudsell but I ended up getting a good run to the line with 400 metres to go."

A breakaway of 22 riders emerged following the first KOM of the day, 20km into the stage. The breakaway included many of the top general classification riders and gained more than 15 minutes on the main peloton during the 165km opening stage.

Parisien attacked the breakaway with 10km to go and was joined by Gudsell and Phil Gaimon (Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder). The three were then joined by Lyttle, Ben King (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis), and Brett Tivers (Garneau Club Chaussures). Lyttle jumped with 400 metres to go to win the race.

"I was not surprised that the breakaway gained so much time because all of the good GC guys were there," Parisien said. "It was a GC move and it usually happens in the first two days here. I was right there, but I usually don't sprint, I don't have that snappy connection. I waited until 300 metres to go and I went but obviously that didn't work out."

Large breakaway gains 15 minutes

The Tour de Beauce is known for wet and cold conditions but the previous season's gorgeous warm weather, however, seemed to have continued into the 26th edition this year. The peloton lined up under a slight overcast, which broke into sunshine on the streets of Lac-Etchemin for first stage.

An early breakaway screamed down the stage's opening descent and into a hard left had corner on to Route 276. The seven riders included Roman Kilun (Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder), Hayden Brooks (V Australia), Scott Lyttle and Mike Northey (PureBlack Racing), Yutaka Ohmura (Fuji), Tommy Nankervis (RealCyclist.com) and former overall winner Scott Zwizanski (UnitedHealthcare).

The breakaway was unorganized and continued to reshuffle to include a new group of 10 riders with Lyttle, Bobby Sweeting and Phil Gaimon (Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder), Andrew Randell (SpiderTech p/b C10), Ben King (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis), Morgan Schmitt (UnitedHealthcare), Aaron Kemps (V Australia), Owen Harrison (H&R Block), Brett Tivers (Garneau Club Chaussures) and Dominique Rollin (Team Canada).

Lyttle won the stage's first King of the Mountain (KOM) of the day, a short and gradual climb located along Route 275. He out-paced new additions to the breakaway, Thomas Rabou and Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com). The ascent, combined with aggressive speeds, caused the field to split in two with roughly 10 more riders joining the breakaway. The most threatening riders in the move included defending champion Ben Day (Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder), Svein Tuft (SpiderTech p/b C10) along with Mancebo and Rollin.

Adding to the 22-man move were Pat McCarty and Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b C10), Bernard Sulzberger (V Australia), Tim Gudsell (PureBlack Racing), Bernard Colex (Amore&Vita), Gael LeBellec and Daniel Fleeman (Raleigh) plus Alex Howes and Robbie Squire (Chipotle Development).

RealCyclist.com, Kenda/5-hour Energy and SpiderTech p/b C10 had strength in numbers and set a quick tempo on the front of the breakaway to establish an initial three-minute gap.

Rollin won the first intermediate sprint located 48kms into the stage. He out-paced Mancebo and Day, who were likely racing for the valuable time bonuses to put toward the overall classification. Rollin picked up full points and additional seconds by winning the second intermediate sprint.

Back in the peloton, UnitedHealthcare put forth several of its riders in an effort to chase, followed by Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis. The two teams contributed in an effort to reduce the time gap. However, they did not receive help from other riders, as most teams were well represented in the breakaway. Once the breakaway established more than three-minutes, the chase let up and the gap exploded to more than 11 minutes.

"We chased with UnitedHealthcare and it started to come back but from what I heard, RealCyclist was working hard in the breakaway," said Will Dugan from Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis, who's teammate Ben King was in the move. "The gap opened up to three minutes and it happened quickly. We would liked to have had more than one rider in that move, and I'm sure UnitedHealthcare would have too."

"Type 1 and our team tried to chase it back," said Eric Greene, UnitedHealthcare DS, who had Morgan Schmitt in the breakaway. "The guys at the front would massage the gap, when we chased, they would go hard. We are not all right with the way the race went today. It will be tough to beat a guy like Mancebo now, who is good in the time trial and will be good on Mont Megantic."

Lyttle won the second KOM ascent, a category two climb located roughly 100km into the stage. The large breakaway shattered into several groups over the climb, but they regrouped along the lengthy descent that followed.

Lyttle won the third and finale KOM of the day and the breakaway maintained a sizable lead heading into the final stretch of the race back to Lac-Etchemin.

"Getting the KOM points was the main objective for the day," Lyttle said. "I ended up having enough left at the end too."