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Neilson Powless wins Tour de Beauce ITT, Hugo Houle second in GC

19-year-old Powless powers to victory in Stage 3a ITT ahead of Capenter and Houle

June 17, 2016
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Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Raim celebrates his Stage 1 victory. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Stage 1 winner Raim (Cycling Academy) flanked by Daniel (Axeon) and Beyer (Lupus). Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Raim takes the races first leaders jersey. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Peloton on Stage 2. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Photo: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Peloton on Stage 2. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Sepp Kuss celebrates his Stage 2 victory atop Mont-Mégantic . Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Russ (Rally) is victorious ahead of Lemus (Cycling Academy) and Houle (Team Canada) on Stage 2. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

19-year-old Powless was the ITT winner. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Carpenter was second, missing out on the win by only one second. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Houle at the 2016 Tour de Beauce

Stage 3a podium. Credit: Corporation du Grand Prix cycliste de Beauce/Brian Black Hodes

Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) won Stage 3a of the Tour de Beauce. The 19-year-old American took the stage win one-second ahead of Robin Carpenter (Rally) and five-seconds up on Canadian national time trial champion Hugo Houle (Team Canada). Gregory Daniel (Axeon Hagens Berman) leads the general classification, 7-seconds ahead of Houle with Carpenter in third, 41-seconds back. The hilly 19-km individual time trial was the first stage of the day with a explosive 78-km road race to follow in the afternoon.

The race began with Estonia Mihkel Räim of the Cycling Academy coming out on top of a strong breakaway on Stage 1 of the Tour de Beauce. American national road champion Daniel took second place while Chad Beyer of Team Lupus rounded out the podium in third.

Top Canadian on the day was Ryan Roth of Silber Pro Cycling who is fresh off of wins at the GP Saguenay and the Winston-Salem Classic who was second from the peloton behind Neilson Powless of Axeon Hagens Berman. The race took place under clear skies but with strong winds along the course. Three riders escaped early in the 185-km first stage and were joined by four later on. The group worked together well gaining a maximum lead of seven minutes. That lead melted down to about 1 minute 30 seconds with five kilometers remaining and five survivors of the days break were together coming around the last corner for a hard uphill sprint. The 21-year-old American national champion was unable to hold off Räim who would take the stage and the races first leaders jersey.

The second stage which would took the riders 169-km and finished atop the tough 12 per cent climb up Mont-Mégantic was won my Sepp Kuss riding for Rally Cycling. Luis Lemus of the Cycling Academy finished second with Hugo Houle riding for Team Canada in third. 

A large break of 24 riders escaped early including three riders from Team Canada. By the bottom of Mont-Mégantic the breaks lead had disintegrated and the group was reduced to seven riders with only 20-seconds.

Following the stage, Houle said, “I came here saying I wanted to win the GC and I had to respond today and get some time on others.  I gave everything I could and I’m pretty happy.  The guy from Rally [Kuss] was really strong and he was right on my wheel.  I just rode as hard as I could to gain some time on other guys.  When he went I could not respond.  It was a really good day for Cycling Canada, and I’ll see tomorrow if I can get some more time.”