Tour de Beauce: Dal-Cin wins on Mont Megantic

Canada's Matteo Dal-Cin of the Rally Cycling team won at the summit of the Mont Mégantic, the queen stage of the 32nd Tour de Beauce, ahead of Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel) and Sepp Kuss (Rally Cycling), who won the same stage last year.

Dal-Cin, a 26-year-old Ottawa native, arrived at the foot of the six-kilometer climb in an intense duel with Carpenter. The two men then had an advance of more than two minutes over the peloton.

With three kilometers to go, Dal-Cin carried an attack and Carpenter was unable to follow. Dal-Cin was never touched, and he was able to take the time to savor a solo victory with more than a minute on his closest pursuer.

At the end of the 170 kilometers, the winner crossed the line after 4:17:30 of racing. In his career, Dal-Cin won the Saguenay Grand Prix Cycling in 2015, the Redlands Bicycle Classic in 2016 and a stage of the Gila Tour earlier this year.

“Winning on Mégantic is pretty special,” said Dal-Cin. “I have had some pretty ugly days on this stage, freezing and having to walk up it 2014, and then crashing in the big pileup in 2015. It was incredible to have the chance to race for the win today. I’m just really stoked that I got the opportunity from the team to have a crack at it from the break when we had such a sure thing with Sepp. It means a lot that they let me play it out and waited to see what happened rather than bringing it back straight away.”

Due to the impressive 26-minute deficit in yesterday’s opening stage, the three men on the podium were not players in the overall standings.

The Silber Pro Cycling team, the winner of the first stage, did not defend the yellow jersey worn today by Émile Jean.

After the Dal-Cin stage victory, several cyclists fought, in the challenging climb, a battle for the yellow jersey. Fifth in the stage, American Keegan Swirbul (Jelly Belly), managed to capture the coveted Yellow Jersey, designating him as the leader of the overall standings, as well as the Red Jersey as leader in the Best Young Rider classification.

Nigel Ellsay (Silber Pro Cycling) takes the best climber's jersey, while Carpenter will wear the White Jersey as the Points Leader.

Rally Team Director Eric Wolhberg praised his squad's efforts despite several riders fighting through illness.

“I am proud of the whole team, especially Adam (de Vos) and Emerson (Oronte) who fought hard against stomach issues,” Wolhberg said. “We had to reset the plan two-thirds through the stage, have everyone mark moves and look for opportunities. Matteo made some great choices, picked the winning move and applied pressure at the right moments. Rob and Sepp were excellent on Mont Mégantic, and Sepp did a great job to take third on the day against a very tough field.”

How it unfolded

The story of the day is quickly summed up. A first group wanted the stage victory, and the second group monitored the yellow jersey classification. The very nervous squad traveled 45 kilometers in an exciting first hour of racing. A group of six cyclists escaped, but their lead has never exceeded three minutes.

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