JUNE 15, 2010
Bellechasse, Que – Andrew Pinfold of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis took 4th in the opening stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce at the end of an aggressive and hectic 165 kms.
As Team Directeur Sportif Gord Fraser noted, Beauce is known for its numerous climbs and notoriously bad road surfaces, and the first stage offered up plenty of both.
“The race started very aggressively with numerous attacks,” Fraser said. “Pinner represented the team in the first eight-man move of note.”
When another eight riders bridged, the resulting combined group include Pinfold and the Team’s GC favorite, Marc de Maar, as well as three riders from Fly V Australia, including their GC contender Ben Day and four riders from Canadian team Spidertech.
“With so much horsepower up front, the teams that missed out needed to organize a chase pretty quickly or else the race may have been decided right there,” Fraser said. Holowesko Partners and Bahati Foundation took responsibility and slowly reeled in this potential GC winning move.
When the catch was made, the counterattacks began, and Jai Crawford (Fly V Australia) and Rafael Serrano (Heraklion-Murcia) got off the front, with Will Routley (Canadian National Team) bridging up to the duo. The three riders worked well together to open up a five-minute gap, which BMC took up the task of reducing.
That’s when the bad roads led to a near disaster for BMC and the rest of the peloton. With 40km to go, the peloton hit a section of road which race organizers described the night before as hard pack. In fact, what the bunch hit was a 900-meter long descent over very loose gravel strewn about with deep potholes, which caused several serious crashes and numerous flat tires.
Once through the section, the chase regained momentum, with Max Jenkins of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis working with riders from Spidertech and Bahati.
With 15km to go Serrano, dropped his two breakaway companions, and the Spaniard was able to hold off the peloton for the victory. Behind the stage winner, Pinfold pulled off 4th in the frantic field sprint.
Stage 2 offers up more of the same for tomorrow, with the famous undulating terrain of the Beauce region of Thetford Mines. “How dedicated the Murcia team of Francesco Mancebo will be on defending his teammate Serrano’s lead will be the most determining factor on tomorrow’s tactics,” Fraser said.
Notes
Eric Barlevav of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis, who came into the first stage suffering from a respiratory illness, began the race but after giving it his best, decided he was not in sufficiently good health to complete the stage and abandoned the race.
Photo: Jonathan Devich, Epic Images
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