Tour de l’Abitibi: Stage 6 and 7 report
On Saturday, Quentin Valognes of Team Novo Nordisk won his second stage of the Tour de l’Abitibi after winning Stage 5 the day before. Valognes outsprinted his French compatriot, Stage 1 winner Rayane Bouhanni (Team France) and Stage 2 winner Norsgaard Jorgansen (Team Denmark). The 95.2-km stage featured nine laps of a 10.8-km circuit in the host town of the race Amos, Que. Without any major hills of note, the pace was relatively high given the torrential downpours the riders faced throughout the stage.
The top placed Canadian on Stage 5 was first-year junior rider Raphael Auclair (Team Quebec). He finished seventh on the stage with the same time as the winner. The GC remained largely unchanged as Bouhanni held on to his leader’s jersey with ease. The top Canadian on GC after Stage 5 was Derek Gee (Team Canada) in eighth.
Sunday was the final stage of the Tour de l’Abitibi. It was a 98-km stage from Senneterre to Amos. Japanese national team member Daiki Magosaki won the field sprint to take the stage. He finished ahead of Moroccan rider Ahmed Amine Galdoune (Team Morocco) and Joh Canaveral Vargas (Team Columbia). Laurent Gervais (Team Quebec) was the top placed Canadian. He finished 12th on the stage.
The overall GC was unchanged. Bouhanni retained his overall lead after finishing safely in the bunch on the final stage. Team U.S.A. rider Zeke Mostov finished in second on GC, 19 seconds behind, while Danish rider Norsgaard Jorgensen (Team Denmark) rounded on the final GC podium. Derek Gee (Team Canada) was a the top-placed Canadian on overall in eighth after the final stage.
Complete results can be found at the Tour de l’Abitibi.
Rayanne Bouhanni FRA wins the 46th Tour de l’Abitibi Desjardins / gagne le 46e Tour de l’Abitibi Desjardins #TourAbitibi
— Tour de l’Abitibi (@TourAbitibi) July 27, 2014
Easy to work with guys like this @USACjuniors #wonteamGC @TourAbitibi zeke-will-diego-adrien-gavin-austin pic.twitter.com/jioXKjgpLw
— JostZevnik (@ZevnikJost) July 27, 2014