Sutherland wins Tour de Beauce

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As Bruno Langlois scored a popular stage win for Quebec team Louis Garneau-Quebecor-Norton Rose, Rory Sutherland and his UnitedHealthCare teammates successfully defended his yellow jersey on the final stage of the Tour de Beauce Sunday.

"They rode so hard all day," said Sutherland after the finish. "My job's the easy job on a day like today."

The 125km sixth stage in Ville St-Georges was not an easy one to control, with 19 corners and two climbs on each of the 10 laps, and the time gaps were still small after five days of racing. Sutherland had a 19-second advantage over Hugo Houle (SpiderTech p/b C10), 43 seconds on Christian Meier and 1:07 on Svein Tuft (both with the Canadian national team), and just 1:39 covered the top 10 - including 2011 winner Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclist Racing Team) at 1:17.

But Sutherland could rely on a strong team that includes the likes of two-time Beauce winner Ben Day, climber Marc De Maar and former WorldTour rider Jason McCartney.
UnitedHealthCare went in with a simple plan: Sutherland would cover Meier on the climbs and Tuft on the flats, while De Maar would cover Mancebo.

The plan worked out, but it wasn't for a lack of trying from their rivals.

The attacks began from the gun as the race got underway on a warm, clear day and a break of seven opened up a small gap by the top of the smaller of the two climbs, a little over half way around the lap.

Chad Beyer (Competitive Cyclist), Matthias Friedmann (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Jamie Sparling and Liam Holohan (Raleigh-GAC), Marsh Cooper and Ken Hanson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Langlois worked well together, and with no real GC threat in the break they stretched their lead to 45 seconds by the end of the first lap.

UnitedHealthCare immediately began setting tempo in the peloton and, despite a crash and puncture for Day, the gap stabilized at about a minute. But on the third lap a series of attacks on the main climb brought the gap down to less than 30 seconds when Sebastian Salas (Optum) attacked across the top and tagged onto the seven leaders about two kilometres later.

Suddenly the breakaway posed a serious threat because Salas was just 1:35 down, and the three Optum riders in the break put their heads down and went for it.
"We wanted to really race today," said Salas, who said Optum's plan going in was to get him and Cooper in the break on the final stage.

"It's very rare that you say ‘this is what we're going to do' and it happens," Salas said.
UnitedHealthCare kept their cool and continued setting tempo despite repeated attacks in the peloton, keeping the gap at around a minute until another strong rider, Rob Britton (H&R Block), bridged across on the fourth lap. With the extra horsepower - and thanks to a puncture for the yellow jersey - the break's lead stretched to 1:38 on the sixth lap, making Salas the virtual leader of the tour.

But that was the most the group would get under repeated attacks in the peloton by Mancebo, Meier and, especially, Tuft.

"It's not easy jumping after Svein 40 times," joked Sutherland.

With the gap down to 30 seconds with two laps to go, the writing was on the wall for the break. Sensing this, Langlois attacked after the main climb, followed by Cooper. As Langlois did the bulk of the work the pair eked out a 20-second lead when the rest of the break was absorbed by the peloton. With the GC threat eliminated the steam went out of the chase and at the bell, Langlois and Cooper had 50 seconds. This shrank down to 35 seconds with two kilometres to go but it would be enough and Langlois easily won the sprint, celebrating with a fist pump as he crossed the line for his first UCI win of the year.

"When the gap was 30 seconds I said to myself, at worst I'll get caught, I have nothing to lose," said Langlois, whose parents were on hand to watch his victory. "I saw Marsh Cooper coming up and I thought it was good because Optum wouldn't chase."

It was a landmark victory for the Garneau team, one of five Canadian domestic squads in the race.

"It shows we have the level to be a continental team," said Langlois.

Sutherland's rivals were full of praise for the Australian and his team. "We saw right away that Sutherland was virtually unbeatable, he was practically laughing as he closed gaps," said runner-up Houle, who won the best young rider competition.

"He's got such a good acceleration on him that it's hard to catch him off guard," said Tuft. "We definitely didn't go down without a fight, but we just couldn't crack him."

Race notes

Almost by accident, Ken Hanson won the KOM competition after taking maximum points in all three categorized climbs on the final stage. Hanson is better known as a sprinter and this prompted jokes that he had the "oval-dot" jersey stretched over his muscular frame. Hanson had already scored points in his day-long breakaway in the first stage, and he was working so hard to try to move Salas up in the GC on Sunday that he led the group up the climb each lap.

"I was kind of shocked - it was not an objective for us," he said. "The first time up the climb I almost got dropped. Once we settled in and got the gap up to 40 or 45 seconds then I just paced it up the climb and got the points."

Although they weren't able to move Salas up in the standings on the final day, Optum director Eric Wohlberg was happy with the team's week, finishing second on the final stage and winning the KOM competition.

"At the end of the day, we raced hard and instead of having one guy on the podium we've got two," he said. "At the team meeting, I just planted a seed and they executed."

Francisco Mancebo went on the attack on the final stage but he wasn't able to make anything stick.

"I felt good on the climb but on the flat it was impossible for me today, United was a strong team today," said the Spaniard, who won the points classification. "I'm happy with the sprint jersey - it's a good consolation."

By any standard, UnitedHealthCare's mechanic, Chris Franges, had a tough weekend with seven flats or mechanicals to deal with in the last two stages. It was made even harder - and more painful - by a broken bone in his foot. He suffered the injury stepping off a curb on Friday and he's worn a plastic boot to immobilize his ankle for the last two days. Franges is a professional skier in the winter and he's going to see a specialist when he gets back to his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Sutherland was impressed with his first Tour de Beauce. "It's a beautiful race - you just have to look around at the scenery and the crowds in Quebec City," he said. "It may not appear it, but we're all really appreciative."

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