Stuyven wins opening stage at Tour de Beauce

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Taking advantage of a tricky downhill finish, Jasper Stuyven (Bontrager) timed his sprint perfectly to take the win on a rainy stage 1 of the 28th edition of the Tour de Beauce. Once the early break was caught with five kilometers to go, the sprinters and the lead-out men jockeyed for position at the front with no team establishing complete control. On the final dash, with riders crashing behind him on the wet roads, Stuyven came around his teammate and held on to claim not only the yellow leader's jersey but also the red best young rider and the white points jerseys.

"The last hill, the little kicker, we were going hard, the field split, there were some crashes up there and then just the last five kilometers, my team did an incredible job, covering moves and keeping me in the front. I started my sprint at 300 [meters to go] because it's a little down so you get the draft, it was perfect. I'm happy to win here after a long day in the rain, the team was amazing today." Stuyven said after the race.

Forced to do multiple trips back to the caravan with a mechanical during the stage, Guillaume Boivin was well supported by his teammates on the Canadian National, and finished second. Andrea Peron (Novo Nordisk) took third.

"Overall with the day we had, it wasn't a bad race," Boivin continued. "It was my first sprint in almost one year so I'm going to find my sprinting legs. Tomorrow, the finish should suit me, so I'm going to try to win."

Peron meanwhile, was left thinking about what might have been.

"The last climb, I was in the first part of the group. With the help of the team, I try to stay in the front. The last kilometer, I try to take the best position, the best wheel. It's a lot of confusion but I had a good result, could have been better but a good result," he said.

The early break

The rain was coming down at the start for the 165-km Lac Etchmein-Lac Etchemin stage which featured the well-known rolling hills of Beauce along with two King of the Mountain and two intermediate sprints. After a few attacks, two riders, Jim Stemper (5-Hour Energy) and Alex Cataford (Garneau-Quebecor) escaped the peloton and established a gap 13 kilometers into the stage.

"It was more an opportunity thing, we were all going fast. Me and the other guy in the break both rolled off the front, kind of in a time trial, we eventually connected and had a minute. He and I are very similar riders it turns out, we both decided to destroy each other," explained Stemper.

Behind them, the field was quite happy to let the two men suffer in the wind with Nic Hamilton of the Canadian National Team setting the pace, a position he kept for half of the race.

"Sometimes those breaks of two little guys can be dangerous because you give them a good leash. We just wanted to set the precedent that we're here, we're not going to pull the whole race but we're definitely looking to shake the race up. We slotted a guy in and it just happened to be me." Hamilton said. "It's hard to get a lot of teams motivated early so I just went in and rolled just a little bit to keep the gap steady and eventually helped came, UHC and Champion System really helped out."

The gap grew steadily, hitting a maximum of nine minutes and 20 seconds by kilometer 82. The pair worked well together, in what Stemper called a "gentleman's break" and agreed to split the KOM and sprint points.

"Right when I got in the break, I talked to the other guy and said he could have the sprints if I could have the KOMs so we traded. We worked together very well, I'm actually very disappointed that there weren't enough points for him to get the points jersey today, it's really too bad because he deserved it," continued Stemper who took the first King of the Mountain jersey.

With more teams slotting riders into the rotation, the gap started to slowly come down but it was still over seven minutes with 50 kilometers to go. Stemper started to believe that maybe they could make it to the finish line but it wasn't to be. The rain increased in the final kilometers bringing UnitedHealthcare and then Bontrager teams to the front to shake things up.

The field was back together with one more kicker left at five kilometers to go and the battle was on.

Riders who went down during the race include Gavin Mannion (Bontrager) who finished while holding his shoulder and Hugo Houle (Canadian National Team).

More rain is in the forecast on Wednesday for the 152km stage, starting and ending in Thetford Mines.