Boivin sprints into yellow at Tour de Beauce

Guillaume Boivin (Team Canada) won the second stage of the Tour de Beauce in Thetford-Mines on Wednesday. He won a bunch sprint ahead of Matthias Friedemann (Champion System) and stage one winner Jasper Stuyven (Bontrager).

Boivin is leading the overall classification after winning stage two and placing second in stage one. Stuyven is leading the points classification and James Stemper is leading the mountains classification.

Stage two of the Tour de Beauce was a 152 kms race that included one large loop with two intermediate sprints and two king of the mountain ascents before finishing on three small circuits in Thetford-Mines.

Noticeably absent from the stage two start line was runner-up in last year’s overall classification and Boivin’s teammate Hugo Houle (Team Canada). It was reported that he crashed during stage one.

The Hincapie Development squad were the main aggressors at the start of the stage, sending riders Oscar Clark off the front followed by Tyler Magner and Joseph Rosskopf.

It was Rosskopf who was able to gain time on the field with breakaway companions Robert Sweeting (5 Hour Energy-Kenda) and Jonathan McCarty (Bissell). Their gap gradually increased to two and a half minutes.

Bontrager held the gap at three minutes over the duration of the stage, protecting its stage one winner and race leader Stuyven. He led the overall classification by a mere four seconds ahead of  Boivin and six seconds to Andrea Peron (Novo Nordisk) at the start of the stage.

Sweeting picked up full point on both ascents during the breakaway. Following the second climb, Chad Beyer (Champion System) jumped ahead of the main field in pursuit of the breakaway riders. His efforts were unsuccessful and he was unable to make it across the gap.

Team Canada, Novo Nordisk, UnitedHealthcare and Bontrager pushed the pace at the front of the field and the gap was reduced to 30 seconds on the final lap of the finishing circuits. They caught the breakaway with 500 metres to go. Team Canada led out Boivin to the finish line where he took the victory.

Stage three is considered the Tour de Beauce “queen” stage with 164 kms before finishing atop Mont Mégantic.

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