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20th Tour de Beauce Bell - 2.2
Canada, June 14-19, 2005
Main Page Results Overall standings Stage Details Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 4a - June 17: St-Jean-de-la-Lande, ITT, 27 km
Tuft toughs it out, takes lead
By Matt Hansen in St. Georges
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Symmetrics Svein Tuft has taken over the lead of the Tour de Beauce Bell by just five seconds, placing second on the stage behind Navigators' Nathan O'Neill. Tuft, who was a favourite to take the jersey, managed to stay under a minute behind the Aussie TT specialist which means tonight's criterium and the two following circuit races should come down to the wire.
As per tradition, grey skies prevailed, and the first twenty cyclists rode their time trial in drizzle; once again temperatures were just over 10 degrees. However, by the time the favourites began warming up the rain stopped, and although there was a wind, it was nothing like the past few days. There were a few riders who weren't in contention for the overall who still said they wanted to ride hard. Jittery Joe's - Kalahari's Tim Johnson was one of them. "Even though I'm not up there for the overall I want to try to go hard, just as a personal test. It's not often we get to do a TT, especially 27km, so I hope to ride it 100%."
Johnson should be one of the riders to watch on the weekend, after a few failed attempts to grab a stage. "Quebec city and Sunday will be days where I really want to try and get a good result. I didn't feel so good the first few days and now my legs seem to be coming back."
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Symmetrics TT specialist Eric Wohlberg was straightforward about the morning's events. "I'm sure after this we will have the yellow jersey. Svein's got a good buffer on O'Neill and he's [Tuft] is riding well. We'll see." Wohlberg too would give it a go. "We want to keep as many guys on our team in the top-ten. I mean, to say that I could take the stage or win the overall, well, that's not going to happen. I just don't have the legs right now."
Mark Walters, another good rider against the clock and still in the hunt for the overall said that he was a bit nervous. "My legs hurt, but so do everyone else's. Nathan's going really well. Heck, even when he's not going well he time trials well. Svein should take the time out of Rollin but as far as him and me...well, we'll see."
How it unfolded
The first rider who broke forty minutes was Jittery Joe rider Bruno Langlois, who held the lead for a while, before it was then passed to Italpasta - Transport Belmire's Chris Isaac, and first stage winner Martin Gilbert. The times kept on falling as the classification riders made their way on the ramp. Christian Meier (Symmetrics) rolled in what would be the fastest time for a few more spots, taking 37:27. By then, the real match-up of the day was already well underway. The wind was still a factor, with a tough cross-head wind on the second leg of the Y-shaped out and back course, which made the climbs and false flats that much more difficult...especially on tired legs.
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The thirteenth rider to go O'Neill, stormed the course, riding a blistering 35:24. With Walters struggling on the undulating course, it became apparent the race for the yellow would be between O'Neill, Tuft and possibly Louder, unless the young Rollin had the ride of his life. Louder pulled off a good ride: 36:45, and ultimately ended up third. Tuft, known as a strongman (the twenty-year-old trains as an Ultimate Fighter in the winter and has a reputation for thoroughly enjoying hard, manual labour) rode the course well, finishing in a time of 36:16. That meant that Tuft took the jersey, but only by five seconds, assuming Rollin didn't surprise them all. As time ticked by, the yellow jersey was nowhere to be seen. Finally, the 23 year old Quebec rider appeared, who had impressed many the past few days but just didn't have it today, finishing over three minutes behind Tuft at 39:44.
Rollin was disappointed in his ride but knew very early that holding the lead was just not to be. "I knew by the first hill I had lost the race. I just didn't have it in the legs. But I'm still happy to have had leaders' jerseys the past few days [Rollin wore both the yellow and the white points jersey] and it was good experience for me. I hope some day I can finish the race in the yellow."
Tuft was pleased to take the jersey - as was widely predicted - but it was by no means easy. "It was hard out there. Really frickin' hard. My legs hurt...it's always hard to ride a TT when you are in a stage race, as opposed to when you are fresh. And the course, the hills, they all hurt. But now we have the lead and a few tough days are ahead of us. But we have a good team, so we will see."
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O'Neill agreed that Symmetrics has been impressive and that Tuft is the rider to beat. "They are a good team and Tuft's a good bike rider. He's been around and ridden on good teams, so it will be hard to dislodge the jersey from him. But there's two difficult stages ahead of us, after the crit tonight."
Wohlberg said his squad was up for the challenge. "I felt ok today, but now we all have a different job ahead of us."
Navigators is definitely, on paper, a stronger team, so the next few days should prove to be interesting. Health Net's John Lieswyn agreed that the bike race is far from over. ""Symmetrics is one the top three teams. These next few days will be hard to defend; it's up and down and it's tough. Svein has been around a long time and I'm sure he and his team will ride smart. Wohlberg has experience and it will be hard for Navigators, and for us, well we will still be aggressive but we are a bit of a dark horse."
The threat of rain is still present for tonight's criterium, and most riders agree that if it is a downpour they will petition the officials to nullify the results to avoid a dangerous race, such as the case in 2003.
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Tonight's crit is set for 6:00pm on the streets of St. Georges.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Rob Jones/www.canadiancyclist.com
- Kacper Sowinski (Amore & Vita - Beretta) on the way to ninth
- John Lieswyn (Health net pb Maxxis) is still a threat after finishing sixth in the TT
- Jeff Louder (Navigators Insurance) on the way to third
- Nathan O'Neill (Navigators Insurance) showed why he's Aussie TT champ.
- Mike Jones (Health net pb Maxxis) turned a 'so pro' performance for 12th
- Jacob Erker (Symmetrics )
- Brandon Crichton (Italpasta - Transport Belmire C.C.)
- Glen Chadwick (Cyclingnews.com) works it for tenth.
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) maxing out on the way to second place and the overall lead
- Dawid Krupa (Paged - MBK - Scout) appears to have picked up a stormtrooper helmet by mistake
- Mark Walters (Navigators Insurance) showing the pain
- Dominique Rollin (Equipe Du Quebec) was unable to defend his slender lead.
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) takes the lead after a fine second place in the TT
Images by Matt Hansen/matthewhansen.net
- National team riders Zach Bell and Ryan Roth warm up
- Dominique Rollin's very slippery-looking Kuota
- Brandon Crichton's hastily anonymised TT bike
- Cyclingnews.com's len Chadwick and his team Fondriest with TT adaptations - aero bars and wheels. Glen turned in a solid tenth despite the lack of an aero wonder-bike.
- The Volkswagen-Trek team are, unsurprisingly, on Trek TT bikes
- David O'Loughlin's Navigators Colnago time trial bike
- Health Net warms up en masse
- Nathan O'Neill (Navigators Insurance) warms up before the time trial
- Symmetrics Norco TT bike
- Jittery Joe's Louis Garneau TT bike
- Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics) ready to go
- Nathan O'Neill (Navigators Insurance) in Australian TT champ colours in the start house.
- John Lieswyn (Health Net) strikes a pose
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) before the TT
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics)
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics)
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics)
Images by Karoline Thériault
- A Canadian team rider gets going
- Alexandre Cloutier (Volkswagen-Trek) rolls out of the start house
- Mike Sayers (Health Net) starts the time trial
- An Italpasta rider sets out in the time trial
- A Jittery Joe's rider looking cautious in the wet conditions
- Glen Chadwick (Cyclingnews.com) rolls in to the finish
- Nathan O'Niell (Navigators) with a very big smile from the podium
- David O'Laughlin (Navigators) wears the points jersey after stage 4a
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) wears the yellow jersey
Results
1 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 35.24.04 2 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 0.51.86 3 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 1.21.34 4 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 1.54.80 5 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 2.03.69 6 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 2.04.30 7 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 2.07.25 8 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 2.20.95 9 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 2.29.39 10 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 2.32.02 11 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 2.45.52 12 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 2.50.92 13 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 3.26.50 14 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 3.41.67 15 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3.43.98 16 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 3.44.03 17 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3.55.98 18 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 3.57.33 19 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 3.59.10 20 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 4.02.13 21 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 4.02.91 22 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 4.20.00 23 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 4.24.43 24 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance 4.28.71 25 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 4.31.99 26 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 4.45.42 27 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 4.45.59 28 Cory Jay (Can) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 4.47.96 29 Peter Sanowar (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 4.51.52 30 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com 4.59.78 31 Kevin Lacombe (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 5.00.44 32 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 5.11.72 33 Mike Sayers (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 5.17.06 34 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 5.17.15 35 Zach Bell (Can) Canadian National Team 5.24.31 36 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 5.25.32 37 Raphaël Tremblay (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 5.28.35 38 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 5.29.47 39 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 5.30.06 40 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team 5.34.99 41 Chris Kuhl (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 5.36.81 42 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 5.38.19 43 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 5.43.87 44 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 5.44.44 45 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com 5.46.07 46 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec 6.06.65 47 Richard Bowker (NZl) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 6.18.19 48 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 6.43.16 49 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 6.43.71 50 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 7.05.84 51 Dustin Macburnie (Can) Yeti 7.19.45 52 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 7.26.26 53 Bradley Fairall (Can) Symmetrics 7.37.95 54 Johny Hayes (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 7.38.18 55 Peter Morse (Can) Yeti 7.44.93 56 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics 7.51.82 57 Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 7.55.61 58 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 8.08.84 59 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 8.09.91 60 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 8.13.95 61 Jens Schwedler (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 8.20.70 62 Daniel Maclaren (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 8.21.71 63 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 8.31.86 64 Alex Richer (Can) Yeti 8.59.09 65 Claudio Bartoli (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 9.03.14 66 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 9.40.56 DNS Jean-François Laroche (Can) Equipe du Quebec DNS Christian Heule (Swi) Stevens Racing Team General classification after stage 4a 1 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 13.37.59 2 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 0.06 3 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 0.26 4 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 1.13 5 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 1.15 6 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 1.46 7 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 1.49 8 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 2.28 9 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 2.29 10 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 2.56 11 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 3.09 12 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 3.26 13 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 4.02 14 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 4.05 15 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 5.23 16 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 17 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 5.24 18 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 6.06 19 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 6.09 20 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 8.00 21 Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 9.37 22 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 10.21 23 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 10.30 24 Mike Sayers (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 12.20 25 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 13.44 26 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 14.57 27 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 15.09 28 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 21.21 29 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 21.31 30 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 22.14 31 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 22.40 32 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance 22.50 33 Cory Jay (Can) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 23.17 34 Chris Kuhl (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 23.58 35 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 24.12 36 Raphaël Tremblay (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 24.23 37 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 24.37 38 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 25.38 39 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com 26.07 40 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 26.20 41 Claudio Bartoli (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 26.32 42 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 26.37 43 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 28.32 44 Kevin Lacombe (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 28.41 45 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 30.32 46 Dustin Macburnie (Can) Yeti 31.08 47 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics 33.53 48 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com 37.17 49 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team 39.01 50 Bradley Fairall (Can) Symmetrics 39.55 51 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 42.30 52 Richard Bowker (NZl) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 44.04 53 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 45.12 54 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 46.21 55 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 46.29 56 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 47.14 57 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 47.27 58 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec 48.03 59 Jens Schwedler (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 50.17 60 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 58.14 61 Zach Bell (Can) Canadian National Team 59.38 62 Peter Morse (Can) Yeti 1.03.43 63 Peter Sanowar (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 1.05.25 64 Alex Richer (Can) Yeti 1.28.28 65 Johny Hayes (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 1.31.23 66 Daniel Maclaren (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 1.48.40 Points classification 1 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 37 pts 2 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 37 3 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 33 4 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 31 5 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 30 6 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 30 7 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 26 8 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 23 9 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 22 10 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 21 11 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 20 12 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 19 13 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 19 14 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 17 15 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 14 16 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 13 17 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 12 18 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 11 19 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 10 20 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 10 21 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 10 22 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 10 23 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 10 24 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 6 25 Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 4 26 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 3 27 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3 28 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 2 29 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 2 30 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 2 31 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 1 32 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 1 Mountains classification 1 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 36 pts 2 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 24 3 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 17 4 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 14 5 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 14 6 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 12 7 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 12 8 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 10 9 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 10 10 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 10 11 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 9 12 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 8 13 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 8 14 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 7 15 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 6 16 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 6 17 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 6 18 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 5 19 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 4 20 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3 21 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 1 22 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance 1 Team classification 1 Navigators Insurance 40.54.44 2 Symmetrics Cycling 4.08 3 Health Net pb Maxxis 8.48 4 Paged - MBK - Scout 9.56 5 Canada National Team 31.16 6 Team Cyclingnews.com 33.25 7 Volkswagen Trek 34.42 8 Amore & Vita – Beretta 36.50 9 Equipe Du Quebec 41.02 10 Italpasta - Transport Belmire 48.07 11 Jittery Joe's - Kalahari 1.50.19 12 CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 2.13.43 13 Yeti 2.24.03
