Tour de Beauce: Miles wins stage 3 atop Mont Mégantic ahead of new GC leader Bouchard

Carson Miles (Toronto Hustle) claimed the mountaintop victory at Mont Mégantic on stage 3 of the Tour de Beauce on Friday afternoon. Felix Bouchard (Cannondale Echelon p/b 4iiii) crossed the line a few seconds back for second place, while Luke Valenti (Team Ecoflo Chronos) finished third. 

The trio of Canadian riders attacked near the top of the summit finish and left Lars Quaedvlieg (Universe Cycling Team) behind for fourth place.

The yellow leader’s jersey moved to the shoulders of 20-year-old Bouchard with his runner-up finish on the stage, who had trailed Cormac McGeough (EC Makadence Primeau Velo) going into stage 3 by 15 seconds. 

Matisse Julien (Team Ecoflo Chronos)retained the white jersey in the points classification and Eric Inkster (Cycling BC) took over as the the new polka dot jersey wearer in the mountain classification.

How it unfolded

The middle stage on five days of racing began in Lac-Mégantic for 169km to the signature climb of the Tour de Beauce, a mountaintop finish at Mont Mégantic. The queen stage featured a trio of intermediate sprints and five categorised climbs, the final one the 5.7km ascent to the finish line.

The low-hanging, dark clouds released the rain just a few kilometres after the start. Several riders tried attacks but no one was able to stay away on the approach to the first categorised climb with 155km to ride. Axle Froner (TaG Cycling), who had been one of the earlier attackers, took the KOM points ahead of Liardet (Team Macadam’s Cowboys).

Following the first intermediate sprint with 27km behind them, a group of 15 riders accelerated in an attempt at a breakaway along the shores of Lake Mégantic, but they were soon all back together headed to the second sprint line. Then four riders attacked together - Nicolas Rivard (Team Ecoflo Chronos), Clovis Roy (Yoeleo Factory Team) Ethan Pauly (Cycling BC) and Braden Kersey (TaG Cycling) - and were joined by Pauly’s teammate Erik Inkster at the sprint line, who took the points.

With 60km to go and riding on flat terrain with the sun peaking out of the clouds,, the quintet’s lead grew to two minutes. In the peloton, US-based teams Project Echelon Racing and Team Skyline drove the chase.

Across Mont-Morne for the second KOM contest, Pauly led Rivard and Kersey across the top, the lead holding at 2:20, but Pauly and Roy soon went backwards and lost touch with his breakaway companions. A short loop on the course led riders over Mont-Morne a second time and only three remained - Inkster, Rivard and Kersey.

With 50km to race, the trio held a 2:05 margin on the peloton, which was beginning to thin and lose riders. The trio had the same results on the fourth KOM, at Marston with 33km to go, but the riders left in the peloton were making a big dent in the gap, down to 1:40. 

With 9km to go, Inkster was the last rider in the breakaway reeled back and it was anyone’s stage to win.

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