UnitedHealthcare wins 2012 Tour de Beauce – results, report and video

Bruno Langlois (Garneau-Quebecor-Norton) won the final stage of the Tour de Beauce in Saint-Georges from a two-man sprint against breakaway companion Marsh Cooper (Optum-KBS). Matthias Friedemann (Champion System), who was dropped from the same breakaway, placed third place on the day.

“I wanted to win yesterday, it didn’t happen,” Langlois said. ” Today I knew I had to get away early. I had to go right away.”

Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) won the overall title. He took over the yellow jersey after the stage four time trial and maintained his lead through the final two stages with help from his teammates. Hugo Houle (SpiderTech) placed second and Christian Meier (Team Canada) placed third.

“It feels great,” Sutherland told Canadian Cycling Magazine. “It was a really hard circuit especially with Canadian teams who race really, really hard in their home race. It’s always good to win as a team. It’s not me, it’s the whole team, that’s where you get your inspiration from.”

The stage six finale was held on a circuit race in Saint-Georges. The peloton completed 10 laps of a 12.5 km course for a total of 125 km. There were three sprints and three King of the Mountain climbs.

A breakaway of seven riders formed at the end of the first lap that included Chad Beyer (Competitive Cyclist), Matthias Friedemann (Champion System), Jamie Sparling and Liam Holohan (Raleigh), Marsh Cooper and Ken Hanson (Optum-KBS) and Bruno Langlois (Garneau-Quebecor). Beyer and Friedemann were the highest placed riders in the GC, both 3:43 behind Sutherland.

Two laps later, Sebastian Salas (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) bridged across. He started the stage in ninth place overall, 1:35 minutes behind Sutherland. Taylor Shelden (Competitive Cyclist) and Morgan Schmitt (Exergy) tried to bridge to the breakaway but did not make it.

On lap four, defending overall champion Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclist) launched an attack but he was quickly followed by Sutherland and Christian Meier (Team Canada) in third place overall.

Rob Britton (H&R Block) successfully bridged across to the breakaway on the fifth lap making it nine riders. Hanson won all three KOM ascents and Friedemann won all three intermediate sprints during the breakaway.

After attacking several times, Svein Tuft (Team Canada) finally broke free from the main field, but he had Sutherland and Chris Butler (Champion System) with him. Once it came back together, Sutherland and his teammate Marc de Maar responded to a flurry of attacks from other overall classification riders Houle, Meier and Mancebo.

With two laps to go, Langlois and Cooper attacked their remaining breakaway companions and gained a 40-second gap on the field. The others sat up and drifted back into the peloton. They gained 50 seconds on the last lap.

Top three stage results

1. Bruno Langlois (Garneau-Quebecor)
2. Marsh Cooper (Optum-KBS)
3. Matthis Friedemann (Champion System)

Top three overall classification

1. Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare)
2. Hugo Houle (SpiderTech)
3. Christian Meier (Team Canada)

King of the Mountain

Ken Hanson (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies)

Points

Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclist)

U23

Hugo Houle (SpiderTech)