2013 Tour de l’Abitibi: Stage 5
Brisebois bolts to the win
Team Quebec’s Olivier Briesebois won a pack sprint as he and five others managed to stay away for a 23-second advantage at the end of a tough 103-km fifth stage of the Tour de l’Abitibi Friday.
The stage began at the Timiskaming First Nation and finished in Lorrainville, Que., and, as has been the norm here at the only UCI-sanctioned junior race outside of Europe, the pace was fast from the minute the peloton was given the green light to start racing after the 2-km roll out.
Team Canada and Team USA drove things hard with the Canadians doing the lion’s share of the pressing, which shattered the peloton by 20 km into the race. By the time the riders went by the finish line to start a 40-km loop, there were a group of five riders 45 seconds clear of a chase group of about 20. Pushing the pace in the break was Team Canada’s Sean Mackinnon and Adam Jamieson, but because Jamieson was just a few seconds out of the young rider jersey held by American William Barta, the two Team USA riders in the group (Geoffrey Curran and Brendan Rhim) were reluctant to push the pace and convinced Mt. Borah’s Rudy Peterson to do the same. Behind the chase group, the main peloton soldiered on, but were 3:45 behind.
Once the group caught the break, another group of five driven by two Colombian riders managed to ride clear. Joining Colombia’s Steven Calderon Acero and Edgar Adolfo Tique Avila were Brisebois, Team USA’s Brendan Rhim and Morocco’s Abderrahim Zahiri. The five worked together and quickly broke well clear of the chase pack—at one point almost 55 seconds clear. With Team Canada’s Jack Burke’s brown jersey in jeopardy, the Canadians went to the front of the group with 8 km to go and chased at upwards of 60 km/h, but their drive came too late and they were only able to get within 21 seconds of the lead group at the line.
Brisebois took the sprint, but it was Rhim who took the day, moving to first in the GC ahead of Brisebois heading into the weekend’s racing. If Thursday had been a day for Canada, Friday belonged to the U.S. and Quebec. With two relatively flat stages to go, Team USA is now in the driver’s seat with Rhim in first followed by Brisebois at four seconds back. Burke is in third, nine seconds down.
Related
Tour de l’Abitibi: Stages 3 and 4
Tour de l’Abitibi: Challenge sprint
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