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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 2 - June 15: Lac-Etchemin - Lac-Etchemin, 180 km
Quebec Day, part two: Rollin rockets to win
By Matt Hansen
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An epic day of racing saw yesterday's second place finisher, Quebec's Dom Rollin, take the win on a cold, windy, rainy day that was marred only slightly by confusion in the final corner. Rollin will inherit the leader's jersey from his compatriot Martin Gilbert, whose Volkswagen-Trek team exceeded expectations by riding a superb race on a very hard day. Today's stage may prove to be the most decisive of the Tour de Beauce Bell, with the list of contenders for the overall now glaringly short.
How it unfolded
Riders were greeted with a shock when they woke up this morning: 7 degrees, rain and howling winds. Mark Walters (Navigators) summed up the day well: "Effin' cold." As in years past, the weather would prove to be significant at the Tour de Beauce Bell. "This is typical Beauce weather," Symmetrics' Eric Wohlberg said, "And it's a bit of a shock because I'm coming from California. Maybe I'm getting soft from living there."
With Martin Gilbert wearing the yellow jersey, many were speculating just how strong his Volkswagen - Trek team would be, and how much work the orange and blue riders would do to defend his lead against the likes of Health Net and Navigators. 2003 winner John Lieswyn (Health Net) definitely hoped his legs would feel better today, and that he would "just ride aggressively and see what happens. It's a cold day and a tough course." Gilbert was candid about the day, saying that he was confident in both himself and his team. "We will ride at the front, all of us, and do our best to keep the jersey."
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From the gun, the frigid air pacified the peloton; no one was willing to take a flyer in the windy conditions. Volkswagen - Trek went to the front and set tempo, with Gilbert riding regally in sixth spot. By the 50km mark, Navigators hit the front to set up their riders for the first intermediate sprint, which their man Mark Walters handily took. Soon after, the first abandon of the day: Cyclingnews.com's Kane Oakley. Oakley was suffering from a hamstring injury and wisely called it quits to avoid further damage. 10km later, Health Net hit the front to up the pace for the first king of the mountains, won by Paged-MBK-Scout's Wojciech Kalemba over Navigators Caesar Grajales. The climb proved to be the starting point of some big-time suffering for the pack, as the pace continued to climb and riders began getting dropped. Single file riding continued as the rain picked up and the wind increased from "really breezy" to "bloody gusty". As the peloton hit crosswinds and headwinds, Canada's Andrew Randell took a flyer, riding solo for 10km but never getting more than 30 seconds. Seeing that no one would join him on his escape, Randell decided to head back to the pack for shelter. The pace stayed high as the bunch hit the second KOM (won by Health Net's Mike Jones); the race would then begin to take its toll on everyone-the peloton split into several groups. Signs of the day were already evident: The broom wagon was full, and had to drop riders off with their respective team cars in anticipation of more riders that would quit later in the day - and there would be lots.
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The wind would prove to be not only difficult, but dangerous. As the race headed down a fast downhill, three riders would crash because of the sidewinds. Stevens Racing's Greg Reain would be forced into the ditch by the strong gusts, followed almost immediately by Canada's Max Plaxton and Charles Dionne losing their balance and hitting the deck.
A group of 11 riders formed and had several heavy hitters, including Nathan O'Neill and Jeff Louder (Navigators), Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) and Glen Chadwick (CyclingNews.com). Ahead of the pack, which was hovering a minute behind, another group formed, led by Health Net's Mike Sayers, and containing Symmetrics' Eric Wohlberg, Dionne (who made an incredible chaseback following his crash), and the vigilant Gilbert. By 106km covered, the pack was nearly three minutes behind; the race was clearly among the two chase groups, the first with 15 riders, the second with nine. The second group fought for the next 5km to catch the leaders, and would finally succeed in doing so. However, just before that, Gilbert punctured and it would take him the better part of 2km to catch back on, along with Canadian team rider Ryan Roth. Following that, six more riders, led by John Lieswyn, caught the break, and by 130km they all came together: there were thirty leaders, with whatever remained of the pack very far behind. Now it was up to Health Net and Navigators to attack each other; a failed attempt by riders like Jones and David O'Loughlin (Navigators) ultimately set up a flurry of short-lived breaks which each time seemed like they might have been the "move of the day." Lieswyn, O'Neill, Ollerenshaw-the usual suspects-tried and tried again to break free in the right combination of riders, but it was not to be. Finally, with 150km covered the group split in two: 15 riders ahead of another 15. Although that two would come back together, the group split again-and not everyone would find themselves going for the win, including a definite favourite, Dionne-who was just off the pace with three others.
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With 15km to go, another attack: This time, from Cameron Jennings (CyclingNews.com). The move seemed to take the twenty leaders off guard-there was no reaction and very quickly, Jennings had over half a minute. But the wind was neither in his favour, nor the hilly final 6km. Health Net and Navigators both upped the pace, and Jennings' lead dropped. As the break got within 10 seconds of Jennings, Navigators' Jeff Louder launched a powerful move up a tough climb; this move would split the group in two. Lieswyn was quick to follow Louder, marked by Navigators. Suddenly, all kinds of favourites saw their chances fade-even climber Dom Perras (Canadian National Team) whose legs cracked on the last tough pitch.
Coming into the finish, the small group of riders thought that it would come down to a straightforward sprint. Jones? O'Neill? Who would it be? On the final corner, some miscommunication from the corner marshal resulted in some of the riders-including Jones, who went the wrong way-having to slow down and take a much slower line. But Dom Rollin, who had ridden well all day, fighting valiantly to make it in each of the breaks, blasted past the others to take a great win, and the leader's jersey. Although there was some disappointment from some of the riders because of the corner confusion, all agreed the stage had been incredible. "The whole day was epic, just epic," O'Neill said. "The end was a shame, sure. It wasn't even that we didn't get to go for the win, but just frustrating to end it that way." Lieswyn echoed the Aussie's sentiments. "I feel a bit badly for Mike Jones, who definitely had a chance at the win, I think."
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Rollin was beaming afterwards as he greeted his hometown press, saying that he felt good on the climbs. "They were steady, so I could hold on and I felt strong. We climbed them in a fairly controlled way," he said. "I had to go my own pace a few times but always got back on. I'm really happy with today." The other Canadian success of the day was Symmetrics, that had four riders in the break-two of them being excellent time trialists, Tuft and Wohlberg-and as director Kevin Cunningham explained, the team felt they had the race "made in the shade. It was disappointing with the finish, but at the same time I'm glad we have three very experienced riders in the front group. Should be good as the week progresses to have options."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Karine Martel
- Volkswagen-Trek leads the peloton
- Volkswagen-Trek in control
- Alexandre Lavallée (Volkswagen-Trek) takes a turn on the front, protecting his team leader.
- Cameron Jennings (Cyclingnews.com) rides in the bunch early in the race.
- Mavic tech support had a busy day swapping wheels punctured in the wet.
- The Volkswagen team's orange-clad daredevils lead the peloton on a descent.
- Health Net leads the peloton
- There's a reason why it's so green as the peloton is discovering
- The peloton approaches the base of a climb
- The peloton takes a moment after cresting a rise.
- Andrew Randell (Canadian National Team) was one of many riders not to finish on a brutal day.
- The peloton enjoys the serenity of the Quebec woods
- The peloton never looked in danger of catching the break
- Charles Dionne (Canadian national team) gets away for a while
- A Canadian national team rider slips off the front of the break
- Cameron Jennings (Cyclingnews.com) gets away from the break
- Cameron Jennings (Cyclingnews.com) accompanied by the tech support moto
- Cameron Jennings (Cyclingnews.com) tries to make good his escape
- Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) was a factor in teh break's success.
- Jittery Joe's grabs a musette, and hopes there's a warm, dry hotel room in there...
- Soigneurs pass up a feed
- The top three Jeff Louder (Navigators Insurance), Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec) and Kacper Sowinski (Amore & Vita-Beretta)
- Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec) smiles as he climbs up to the podium.
- Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec) waves from the podium
- Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec) very happy with the jersey after avery hard day
- Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec) also earned the best young rider's white jersey
- Wojciech Kalemba (Mesetacaffe-MBK-Scout) and the mountains jersey
Results
1 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 5.00.01 2 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 3 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 4 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 5 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 6 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 7 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 8 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 9 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 10 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 11 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 12 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 13 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 14 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 15 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 16 Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 1.36 17 Jean-François Laroche (Can) Equipe du Quebec 18 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 19 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 20 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 21 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 22 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 3.57 23 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 4.46 24 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 25 Mike Sayers (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 6.04 26 Kevin Lacombe (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 8.46 27 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 11.07 28 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics 29 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team 30 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 31 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 32 Luc Dionne (Can) Yeti 17.23 33 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com 34 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 35 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 36 Richard Bowker (NZl) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 37 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 38 Cory Jay (Can) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 39 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 40 Zach Bell (Can) Canadian National Team 41 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec 42 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 43 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 44 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 45 Michael Norton (USA) Team Nerac.com 46 Jens Schwedler (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 47 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 48 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 49 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 50 Bradley Fairall (Can) Symmetrics 51 Raphaël Tremblay (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 52 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 53 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 54 Christian Heule (Swi) Stevens Racing Team 55 Claudio Bartoli (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 56 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 57 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 58 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 59 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance 60 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 61 Martin St-Laurent (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 62 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com 63 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 64 Chris Kuhl (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 65 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 66 Craig Wilcox (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 67 Dustin Macburnie (Can) Yeti 68 Peter Morse (Can) Yeti 35.36 69 Peter Sanowar (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 36.00 70 Johny Hayes (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 71 Alex Richer (Can) Yeti 54.55 72 Daniel Maclaren (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport DQ Jiri Pospisil (Cze) Stevens Racing Team DNF Ivan Dominguez (Cub) Health Net pb Maxxis DNF Greg Reain (Can) Stevens Racing Team DNF Peter Presslauer (Aut) Stevens Racing Team DNF Lee Rosenthal (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology DNF Alex Ferrero (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology DNF Jonathan Swain (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology DNF Adam Hodges Myerson (USA) Team Nerac.com DNF Ari De Wilde (USA) Team Nerac.com DNF John Hanson (USA) Team Nerac.com DNF Jesse Lawler (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari DNF Thaddeus Dulin (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari DNF Jeffrey Hansen (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport DNF Philippe Abbott (Can) Canadian National Team DNF Andrew Randell (Can) Canadian National Team DNF Pierre-Olivier Boily (Can) Equipe du Quebec DNF Jean-François Racine (Can) Equipe du Quebec DNF Kane Oakley (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com DNF Alexandre Lavallée (Can) Volkswagen-Trek DNF Alexandre Cloutier (Can) Volkswagen-Trek DNF Adam McClouine (Can) Yeti DNF Thorben Wieditz (Ger) Yeti Teams 1 Paged - MBK - Scout 15.00.03 2 Navigators Insurance 3 Symmetrics Cycling 4 Health Net pb Maxxis 1.36 5 Canada National Team 17.29 6 Equipe Du Quebec 18.59 7 Team Cyclingnews.com 8 Volkswagen Trek 21.29 9 Amore & Vita – Beretta 22.09 10 Italpasta - Transport Belmire C.C. 34.46 11 Jittery Joe's - Kalahari 52.09 12 Stevens Racing 13 Yeti 1.10.22 14 CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 1.10.46
General classification after stage 2 1 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 9.14.57 2 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 0.15 3 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 0.16 4 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 0.19 5 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 0.20 6 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 7 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 0.28 8 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 1.11 9 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 1.17 10 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 11 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 12 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 13 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 14 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 15 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 16 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 2.01 17 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 2.53 18 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 19 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 20 Jean-François Laroche (Can) Equipe du Quebec 21 Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 22 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 5.14 23 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 6.03 24 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 25 Mike Sayers (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 7.21 26 Kevin Lacombe (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 10.03 27 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 11.14 28 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 12.24 29 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 30 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics 31 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 17.39 32 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 17.43 33 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 17.53 34 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 18.38 35 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 18.39 36 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 18.40 37 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec 38 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 39 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 40 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 41 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 42 Cory Jay (Can) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 43 Richard Bowker (NZl) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 44 Craig Wilcox (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 45 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 46 Luc Dionne (Can) Yeti 47 Raphaël Tremblay (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 48 Jens Schwedler (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 49 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance 50 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 51 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com 52 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 53 Bradley Fairall (Can) Symmetrics 54 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 55 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 56 Claudio Bartoli (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 57 Chris Kuhl (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 58 Christian Heule (Swi) Stevens Racing Team 59 Martin St-Laurent (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 60 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 61 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com 62 Dustin Macburnie (Can) Yeti 63 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 19.00 64 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 28.14 65 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team 30.37 66 Peter Morse (Can) Yeti 36.53 67 Zach Bell (Can) Canadian National Team 37.43 68 Michael Norton (USA) Team Nerac.com 41.51 69 Alex Richer (Can) Yeti 56.12 70 Daniel Maclaren (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 1.17.02 Points classification 1 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 33 pts 2 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 24 3 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 21 4 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 18 5 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 17 6 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 14 7 Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 13 8 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 13 9 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 11 10 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 11 11 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics 10 12 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 10 13 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 9 14 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 8 15 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 7 16 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 6 17 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 5 18 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 4 19 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance 3 20 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 3 21 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics 2 22 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 2 23 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe's-Kalahari 1 Mountains classification 1 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 30 pts 2 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 22 3 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 12 4 Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance 11 5 Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec 10 6 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 9 7 Jiri Pospisil (Cze) Stevens Racing Team 8 8 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged - MBK - Scout 7 9 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 7 10 Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec 6 11 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 5 12 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 5 13 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 5 14 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 5 15 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 4 16 Jeffrey Hansen (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 3 17 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 2 18 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 1 19 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta - Belmire Transport 1 Back to top
