Stake Laengen wins fifth stage of Tour de Beauce

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It was a day of firsts for Vegard Stake Laengden at the Tour de Beauce Saturday. On his first visit to Canada in his first year with Team Type 1 Sanofi, the Norwegian won his first-ever road race in front of a boisterous crowd in Quebec City.

Laengen was the strongest in a seven-rider breakaway that took off on just the third of 13 laps of a tough 9.6-km circuit, which includes the same uphill finish the ProTeams face in the GP Cycliste de Québec in September.

"I was feeling strong – I knew this finish was good for me, with the climb," the 24-year-old Laengen said as he was congratulated by his delighted teammates. "It's my first road win ever – up to now it was just time trials."

The stage had little effect on the overall standings, with UnitedHealthCare setting tempo all day to protect the yellow jersey of Rory Sutherland. The Australian had a stress-free stage, finishing at the head of a much-reduced peloton alongside second-placed Hugo Houle (SpiderTech p/b C10), less than 40 seconds behind the winner.

"When you've got good teammates and a good plan, if everybody does their job then it works out," Sutherland said. "Our guys rode well. I think for anyone after 10th wheel it was really hard on the climb."

After a neutralized first lap, the attacks began from the gun and a group of 12 riders quickly broke free on the fast, technical descent down Cote Gilmore.

With Thomas Rabou and Chad Beyer (Competitive Cyclist Racing Team), Flavio De Luna (SpiderTech p/b C10), Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare), Clinton Avery and Adiq Othman (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Aldo Ilesic (Team Type 1 Sanofi), Liam Holohan (Raleigh-GAC), Marsh Cooper (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Systems), Michael Torckler (Bike NZ – Pure Black Racing), Garrett McLeod (H&R Block) and Nic Hamilton (Canadian national team) the break was too big and too dangerous to be given much headway and they only gained 30 seconds before being brought back on the climb to the start-finish.

Almost immediately a smaller group broke free with some of the same riders. Beyer, Craig Lewis (Champion System), Laengen, Russell Hampton (Raleigh), Holohan, Antoine Duchesne (Garneau-Quebecor-Norton Rose) and Hamilton had 45 seconds by the bottom of the descent and 1:10 by the end of the lap.

Over the next lap the lead grew to 2:15 as Sutherland dealt with a puncture, but as soon as he was sorted out UnitedHealthCare began setting tempo and, with Laengen the top-placed rider in the break (11th overall at 2:53), they kept the gap pegged at between 2:15 and 2:30 for the next few laps.

With four laps to go, Thomas Rabou (Competitive Cyclist) and Torckler attacked the peloton on the climb and, after chasing for a little over a lap they latched on in the descent with a less than two laps to race.

The next time up the climb Beyer and Torckler made a dig and briefly split the group, but it came back together over the top and, as the nine riders in the break began sizing each other up, the peloton closed to within 1:14.

After the last descent Rabou, Laengen, Hampton, Duchesne and Hamilton jumped clear and they started the final two-kilometre climb to the finish with about 10 seconds on the rest of the break and 45 seconds on the peloton.

Hampton was the first to attack, but about halfway up the steepest part of the hill Laengen responded. With Hampton on his wheel on the final false flat to the finish, Laengen kept his cool and jumped with 50 metres to go and held on to the finish, finally giving Team Type 1 a victory in this year's tour and moving Laengen into the top 10 overall. Hampton's Raleigh-GAC teammate Holohan rounded out the podium in third.

"I think I had the legs to go it alone today," said Hampton, who had a go earlier in the week on stage 3 only to be caught at the base of Mont-Mégantic. "But when the other Competitive Cyclist guy came over it changed the dynamic."

Despite a few attacks, none of the GC contenders made a serious bid to put Sutherland in difficulty, leaving the final showdown to Sunday.

Stage 6 is another 125-km circuit race in Ville St-Georges on a course that lends itself to aggressive racing. Canadian national team riders Christian Meier and Svein Tuft – who sit in third and fourth place overall – and 2011 winner Francisco Mancebo have all vowed to go down swinging, and will be hoping that UnitedHealthCare will be feeling the effects of the work they did in Quebec.

"We'll see – it's a different circuit, a different challenge," said Sutherland.

Race notes

The race almost had to be stopped on the third lap when a passenger on a non-race motorcycle had an epileptic seizure on a narrow section of road at the bottom of the course. As the driver dealt with the situation, he parked his three-wheeled motorcycle across the race course. Fortunately both the breakaway and the peloton made their way safely around the obstruction. By the next lap the passenger had recovered and police sent the pair on their way.

The Quebec City circuit is popular with spectators – especially the climb, which passes by some of the most popular tourist spots in the city. Organizers also handed out free cow bells, making for a wall of noise on the climb and keeping the riders motivated.

"This is the stage to get in the breakaway – the fans are so great," said Nic Hamilton, who finished sixth.

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