Team Type 1 wins Tour de Beauce Stage 5: Results, report and video

Vegard Stake Laengen (Team Type 1-Sanofi) clawed his way to the stage five victory at the Tour de Beauce on Saturday in Quebec City. He outpaced two of his eight breakaway companions, Russell Hampton in second and Liam Holohan in third, both from team Raleigh.

Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) relied on teamwork to maintain his lead in the overall classification heading into the final stage, a circuit race in Saint-Georges on Sunday.

Race organizers shortened the penultimate stage’s course in Quebec City. The peloton started along the Grande Allee, turning sooner into Plains Abraham to go down the Cote Gilmour. The circuit was shortened to 13 laps of 9.6 kms for a total of 124.8 km.

Once the peloton descended through a section of the Parc de Champs de Battaille, riders followed the Boulevard Champlain racing along the Saint Lawrence River. They then climbed the Rue du Fort to the King of the Mountain, which was located just past the historic Chateau Frontenac.

A breakaway of seven riders emerged on the second lap. Those riders included Vegard Laengen (Team Type 1-Sanofi), who was the highest placed on GC at 2:53 minutes behind Sutherland, Chad Beyer (Competitive Cyclist), Craig Lewis (Champion System), Russell Hampton and Liam Holohan (Raleigh), Antoine Duchesne (Garneau-Quebecor) and Nic Hamilton (Team Canada).

The breakaway gained a maximum of two and half minutes ahead of the peloton controlled by UnitedHealthcare. Hamilton won the King of the Mountains on Rue du Fort and Laengen won the intermediate sprints during the stage.

Two chasers escaped the field and bridged across to the breakaway with two laps to go. Those two riders were Thomas Rabou (Competitive Cyclist) and Michael Torckler (PureBlackRacing). Shortly after, David Clarke (Node4 Giordana) attempted to bridge to the breakaway, but he did not make it across.

Laengen and Hampton relentlessly attacked their breakaway companions until they got a gap with one kilometre to go. Laengen out sprinted Hampton on the uphill drag to the finish line.

After the Quebec City stage, Hamilton (Team Canada) laid claim to the King of the Mountains Jersey. Aside from Hamilton’s achievement, though the day did not unfold favourably for Team Canada. Hamilton was the only rider to get into the break. As a result, it will come down to tomorrow’s final stage to attempt to dislodge Rory Sutherland from the top of the GC.

The United Healthcare squad controlled the peloton to maintain their hold on the GC. Team director Hendrik Redant said some of his riders ran into a few mechanical problems early in the race, but once those were resolved they did the job they set out to do. Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclists) made several attempts to breakaway but there was a United Healthcare rider there every time.

Redant says that tomorrow’s stage in Saint-Georges will be somewhat more challenging than today because there are more climbs, but says he’s confident his team will be successful defending the yellow jersey.

Tomorrow’s final stage is a circuit race of 10 laps for a total of 125 kms.

Results

Unofficial top 10

1. Vegard Stake Laengen (Team Type 1-Sanofi)
2. Russell Hampton (Raleigh)
3. Liam Holohan (Raleigh)
4. Chad Beyer (Competitive Cyclist)
5. Thomas Rabou (Competitive Cyclist)
6. Nic Hamilton (Team Canada)
7. Craig Lewis (Champion System)
8. Antoine Duchesne (Garneau-Quebecor-Norton)
9. Michael Torckler (PureBlackRacing)
10. Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare)

Overall classification:

Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare)