Svein Tuft wins sixth stage and Francisco Mancebo retains his overall lead in 2011 Tour De Beauce
Spider Tech p/b C 10 team’s Svein Tuft won the sixth and final stage in Saint Georges of 2011 Tour De Beauce on Sunday, June 19.
The 34-year-old Svein took a total of 3 hours, 2 minutes and 5 seconds to cover the distance of 125 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Tuft said, “This was undoubtedly one of the toughest days of racing I have ever done, our team wanted to put Mancebo under as much pressure as possible, so we just made it hard out there.”
Andrew Pinfold of UnitedHealthcare Pro cycling was the runner-up with 18 seconds behind Svein. Brett Tivers of Garneau Club Chaussures was in the third spot.
Phillip Gaimon was in good form, but failed to catch the group of thirteen riders and grabbed the 15th spot with a difference of 39 seconds, ahead of Christopher Jones and Dominique Rollin.
A group of three cyclists made their first breakaway including, Aldo Ino Ilesic, Alex Howes and Brett Tivers. Aldo Ino won the first sprint of the stage.
In the second sprint, Howes maintained his pace and won the second sprint, however at the start of the ninth lap the peloton worked together. Howes took the final sprint with an advantage of three seconds, but overall grabbed the fourth spot with 1 minute
and 30 seconds behind Mancebo.
In the First Mountain the three cyclists, Svein Tuft, Howes and Bernard Sulzberger worked together, but Svein won the first and second climb.
In the final climb Mancebo maintained his pace and was followed by Colex and Arnaud Papillon. All of them were joined by a group of eight riders, including Chris Jones, Mike Northey and Svein Tuft.
In the final few kilometres, Tuft attacked and gained a sizeable lead and took the victory.
Tuft further added, “I just wanted to go for the stage win; I didn't even think about (the top three overall).” said Tuft. “So I attacked before the final descent, and after that it was just a matter of hanging on and suffering as much as possible.”
Francisco Mancebo Perez of Realcyclists.com cycling took the overall lead with a timing of 18 hours, 31 minutes and 18 seconds. Bernardo Colex Tepoz of Amore & Vita was the runner-up with 25 seconds behind Perez.
The stage winner, Svein finished third with a difference of 49 seconds ahead of Alex Howes.
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