JUNE 17, 2010
Mont Megantic, Que – Marc de Maar of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis said his legs hadn’t felt too good the first couple days of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce. Apparently, they got better in a hurry, as the Dutch rider won today's stage atop Mont Megantic solo and took over the race lead.
“I did not feel so good the first two days, and did not feel great for most of the stage today,” de Maar said. “But when we started the climb I began to feel better.”
The first steep section of the 9 km finishing climb to the top of the vaunted Mont Megantic summit served to whittle the front group down to about 15 riders, with a splintering six-rider break up the road. De Maar kept a close eye on his companions, and when he saw time trial specialist Ben Day (Fly V Australia) in a bit of difficulty, he picked that time to attack full gas.
De Maar departed the main group with 3 km left, immediately leaving everyone but David Boily (SpiderTech) in his wake. One kilometer later, Boily fell off the pace, and de Maar was solo in pursuit of the remnants of the day’s main break, which still held a 1:30 gap at the base of the 9 km finishing climb.
Over the closing kilometers, de Maar picked off danger men Jeff Louder (BMC) and former Beauce overall winner Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1), who held on for 3rd. Finally, with about 200 meters to go, de Maar caught and pssed the last break member, Derrick St-John (Garneau Club Chaussures), who held on for fine 2nd place 0:08 behind de Maar.
Breaking Bad
The day’s main six-rider break posed all kinds of problems for the Heraklio-Murcia team of race leader Rafael Serrano. Five problems, to be exact, as five members of the break were all within 0:23 of the race lead. The Murcia squad did a fair job of keeping the break in check, with the gap rising to a maximum of about 3:00 over the first KoM.
But all their work served only to benefit other teams in the race – most notably UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis – when Serrano fell off the pace on the first steeps slopes of Megantic. Allowed to ride tempo in the pack for the first 145 km of the stage, de Maar and his UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis teammates were rested and ready for the final 9 km climb.
Along with de Maar, Morgan Schmitt confirmed his good form with an excellent 8th place on the stage, just 0:34 behind his teammate. Both Chris Baldwin and Max Jenkins put in solid rides, finishing 21st and 22nd, 1:33 and 1:41 back respectively.
Friday’s Stage 4 individual time trial will likely pose the biggest challenge to de Maar keeping his yellow jersey. He succeeded in putting 0:39 into Day on the climb, arguably his biggest threat in the time trial. And de Maar does go into this TT with the confidence of having won his last race against the clock at Mt. Hood two weeks ago.
Notes
Andrew Pinfold of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis scooped up just enough sprints points by winning the first intermediate sprint to hold onto his white jersey of sprint competition leader by two points ahead of Kobzarenko. With no points on offer tomorrow, he’ll wear the jersey at least through Saturday.
Photo: Provided by UnitedHealthcare
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