Tuft tops time trial

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Svein Tuft (SpiderTech p/b C10) was the odds-on favourite to win the Tour de Beauce stage four time trial and he did not disappoint. The six-time Canadian National Time Trial Champion rode the 20kms parcours in a time of 25:26, besting Michael Freiberg (V Australia) in second and Scott Zwizanski (UnitedHealthcare) in third.

"We have been hunting for a win and have been so close," Tuft said. "We are very excited about it. But, for us the race is just starting. We have several riders in the top of the overall classification and that is exactly what we wanted going into the last two stages."

Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com) finished the time trial in fifth place with a time of 25:55. He maintained his overall race lead heading into the stage five circuit race held in Quebec City. "I didn't feel good today," Mancebo said. "The course and the time trial was very hard."

Just over 100 riders individually took the starting ramp for the fourth stage of the Tour de Beauce. The 20km time trial started and finished in the small town of Saint-Rene and ran 10km out and back along a flat to undulating course.

"This was a new course for me and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be," Tuft said. "Riding it in training, I didn't think it was going to be that difficult but when you hit the turn around and start heading back I realized it was a lot of work to climb back up, both ways I had to go full gas."

Australia's Freiberg, 20, was pleased with his second place performance on the day. He is the current UCI World Omnium Track Champion and recently joined the V Australia for this season on the road. He started his time trial mid-event and held the fastest time of the day until Tuft surpassed him.

"I was a strong time trialist as a junior but it drifted away as I've been focused on the track for the last couple of years," Freiberg said. "It's been a hard transition across to the road. Today was nerve racking and I had to go for a ride after my time trial because I couldn't stand it. I was pretty happy."

Zwizanski, who won the event's overall title in 2009, was also pleased with his performance after taking six to eight weeks off due to a broken hand sustained at the Vuelta Asturias in April. He was forced to sit out both the Amgen Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Championships.

"This was my first time trial back and I'm happy with it," Zwizanski said. "There have been pretty bumpy roads here and I feel like I'm back in the early race season again. I haven't raced in six weeks and I did the best I could on the indoor trainer but it's hard to mimic real racing. I've been trying to help the team and get some race legs back."

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