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Hectic final stage of Tour de Beauce rattles the Canadians

The U.S. rider heading into the stage in fourth place made the right moves

June 23, 2019
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U.S. rider Brendan Rhim is the winner of the 2019 Tour de Beauce after an outstanding performance on the race’s final day. The 23-year-old on Arapahoe-Hincapie snagged the leader’s jersey off the back of Nick Zukowsky (Floyd’s Pro Cycling) who led the race since Stage 2. Last year’s winner and victor of this year’s Stage 2 on Mont Mégantic James Piccoli (Team Canada), moved one ahead of Zukowsky and into second overall.

The final stage of the UCI Tour de Beauce in Saint Georges always delivers a nail-biting finish. Ty Magner (Rally Cycling) sat second overall with the same time as Zukowsky but slipped from the lead group and out of title contention when he dropped out of the race on a day that saw aggressive racing and many DNFs. Throughout the stage, attacks flew with the lead GC riders trying to mark or get into the most dangerous moves.

Finally, Diego Milan-Jimenez (Inteja IMCA-Ridea) took the stage win with Rhim behind with the same time. Floyd’s Keegan Swirbul was third.

Rhim built his overall victory on consistency all week. He took a stage win and finished in the top 5 on four stages. He set the groundwork for his GC win, 14 seconds on Piccoli, back on the first stage when he finished third behind Magner and Zukowsky while gaining a valuable 1:21 advantage on his other GC rivals. On the stage up the tough Mégantic climb, he conceded 1:37 to Piccoli but later gained time back with bonus seconds and aggressive racing.

Zukowsky picked up the young riders jersey as a consolation prize a week after winning the GC at the Tour de Saguenay. Adam Jamieson (Team Canada) won the KOM competition. Floyd’s was the top team and Ignacio de Jesús Prado (Canel’s – Specialized) picked up the points classification.

The racing stays in the Beauce region with the Canadian junior, under-23 and elite ITT, road and crit championships beginning on Friday.