Mancebo conquers Mont Megantic

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Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com) came one step closer to his goal of winning the overall title at the UCI Tour de Beauce when he sprinted to the "queen" stage three win atop Mont Megantic. The Spaniard out-paced climbing rival Bernard Colex (Amore&Vita) and Sebastian Salas (H&R Block) climbed into third place.

"RealCyclist.com is really pleased with this win," said team director Gord Fraser. "We wanted to win this stage. We thought about letting a breakaway go, but we decided that we wanted to win the stage. We wanted to win the stage, get the jersey, that was our plan and we will see what happens next."

Mancebo gained enough time on the finishing ascent to move into the overall race lead heading into the stage four 20km time trial. Fraser acknowledged the final two circuit races held in Quebec City and Saint-Georges and he is confident that Mancebo will be able to maintain the race lead.

"Nothing is secure, yet," Fraser said. "The Kiwis are showing that they are really strong and Svein Tuft will be strong in the time trial. The guys rode hard today and we rode like we had the jersey. They have two more days to work. We’ve been doing very well this year in hard circumstances and this is just another challenge."

The showdown on Mont Megantic

The decisive breakaway of the day made it to the final climb intact, however, a series of attacks caused the group to dismantle at the base of the five kilometre slope to the top of Mont Megantic.

Arnaud Papillon (Garneau Club Chaussures) made a strong move and gained five seconds over his breakaway companions. He was quickly followed by Svein Tuft (SpiderTech p/b C10), who was a late addition to the breakaway and posed the biggest threat to the overall contenders back in the field at only 32 seconds back in he general classification.

"I was trying to gain extra time up the climb," Tuft said. "If you don't take a dig, a guy like Mancebo is just going to walk away with the race and we are not here for that, we are here to give it everything we have. We wanted Pat to stay with Mancebo on the climb."

A group of roughly ten riders emerged from the peloton that included all the key climbers, Mancebo, Colex and Salas along with race leader Scott Lyttle (PureBlack Racing), Pat McCarty (SpiderTech p/b C10), Ben King (Team Type 1), Phil Gaimon (Kenda/5-hour Energy), Charly Wegelius (UnitedHealthcare), Alex Howes and Rob Squire (Chipotle Development) and Daniel Fleeman (Raleigh).

"I was really nervous going into the climb because I know that Francisco is a strong climber," Colex said. "I was able to stay on his wheel. I’m really happy with the race today."

The chasers caught and passed the breakaway riders in pursuit of a stage win on the prestigious ascent and valuable time toward the overall classification. Mancebo launched an attack with one kilometre to go and was followed by Colex. The pair sprinted to the finish line where Mancebo took the stage win.

A series of breakaways keep the pace high over Beauce rollers

The peloton lined up to contest the Tour de Beauce ‘queen’ stage three, a 153km road race that started in Saint-Georges and finished at the top of a lengthy ascent on Mont Megantic. Race organizers offered a new course this year with the addition of several new and steeper ascents en route to final climb.

A large breakaway emerged in the opening kilometres that included GC threats Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b C10) and Morgan Schmitt (UnitedHealthcare), both were involved in the stage one decisive breakaway. The group split and reshuffled to include representation from many of the participating teams.

Christian Meier (UnitedHealthcare) jumped ahead of his breakaway companions into a solo move, gaining one minute. However, he sat up several kilometres later and waited for the peloton.

A new breakaway formed that included Jim Stemper (Kenda/5-hour Energy), Bruno Langlois (SpiderTech p/b C10), Fabio Calabria and Alex Schmidt (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis), Nicholas Hamilton (Canada), Darren Rolfe and Johnnie Walker (V Australia), Yutaka Ohmura (Fuji), Sergey Grechyn (Amore&Vita), Arnaud Papillon (Garneau Club Chaussures), Kin San Wu (Champion System), Danny Summerhill (Chipotle Development) and Morgan Schmitt (UnitedHealthcare), who was the highest placed rider 3:58 behind overall race leader Scott Lyttle (PureBlack Racing).

Schmidt passed Lake Drolet and arrived to the top of the first KOM, several seconds ahead of his breakaway companions. However, the peloton was not far behind at roughly 50 seconds at the top of the climb. PureBlack racing and RealCyclist.com were unwilling to allow too much time between their overall contenders and the breakaway riders.

As the breakaway approached the ascent, Andrew Randell and strong climber David Boiley (SpiderTech p/b C10) bridged across. Next in line was Svein Tuft (SpiderTech p/b C10), who successfully made it across before the final climb.

"Tactically it was a really good day for us, and that is what we planed to do," Tuft said. "A lot of times it is hard to execute on a tough stage but everyone is riding really well. It was a difficult stage and we wanted to have strength and numbers up the road."

PureBlack Racing and RealCyclist.com was responsible for keeping the breakaway at a manageable distance of one minute. "PureBlack did work and there was a fair amount of cooperation, although I think we did more than our share," Fraser said. "That was to be expected. Lyttle did great on the climb today."

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