GUILLAUME BOIVIN IN YELLOW AT TOUR DE BEAUCE
Thetford Mines has recently been Tour de Beauce’s sprint stage and today would prove no different. However, the route to the finish can always take twists and turns and today I saw things I’ve never seen before. I’ll try my best to verbalize what I witnessed, but if there was ever a day for me (or Guillaume) to buy the lottery ticket it’s today.
Backtrack to the start and naturally we had a very aggressive opening half hour where finally a very strong break of 3 riders would snap the grip of the peloton. 5-hour ENERGY would place Bobby Sweeting along with Bissell’s Pat McCarty and Hincapie’s vastly underrated Joey Rosscopf. Keeping this trio in check would take serious work and yellow jersey team Bontrager did just that.
After assuming more then our share of work in the opening stage, we opted to be more discreet and gamble that other teams would help control for that aforementioned sprint. After an untimely puncture in some forming crosswinds, our second place man and favored sprinter Boivin would chase back to the pack. I dropped Guillaume and recent Philly winner Reijnen of UHC onto the bumper of Axel Merckx of car 1 Bontrager when there was an abrupt brake stand. What followed next will be etched in my memory for years to come. I’ll try and do this justice.
Guillaume would slam into the bumper while Reijnen would be ejected into the ditch and down into a farmers field. The latter’s fall fell into my peripheral vision as Guillaume was splayed out on the trunk of Axel’s car. Luckily Bontrager opted for the race provided rental cars and it was a smallToyotasedan and not a flush wagon rear end like most pro team cars. This allowed space for Guillaume’s torso as he grabbed the seam where the trunk and rear window met. By his finger tips clutching himself upright and one foot unclipped dragging on the slowing pavement while the other foot dragging his Cannondale along for the ride, Axel deftly slowed down just enough for Guillaume to softly land back on his feet no worse for wear!!! My bulging eyes watched our mechanic Shawn swiftly assess the damage and before we really understood what happened, pushed Guillaume off the resume his chase of the front group. Mr. Reijnen also came out relatively unscathed and eventually would return as well.
After all involved digested what just happened and took a deep breath, we all could only laugh and thank the karma gods for keeping our riders unharmed. Accidents happen in bike racing but it was the talents of both riders and drivers involved that mitigated any further damage. Thanks again Axel!
Undaunted, the chase was still struggling to reel in the break. I crept up the side of the peloton with 20 km to go to instruct our team to lend a hand when another big pileup happened right beside me involving 4 of my guys including; you guessed it Guillaume. This would delay our trip to the front. Rob, Marsh and Nic would all escort Guillaume back up front with 15km to go with the gap still a nerve wracking 2:30.
UHC, Novo Nordisk would help Bontrager until finally our CyclingCanada formation would take control with one lap of the finishing circuit to go. 3.5 km to bring back 35 seconds; my cuticles took a beating until my vision up front widened with a scant 500m to go where surprise the break was swallowed up under the fast leadout of the boys. The question was could we finish off two days of hard work and the worst luck with a win?
I overheard announcer Randy Ferguson proclaim the winner from TeamCanada. The old horn of the Ford Focus may not ever work the same as Shawn and I celebrated pulling into team parking. This was a great result and cumulative work of professional riders coming together and executing perfect tactics.
Can’t wait until tomorrow where the races’ climbers take center stage. It will completely change the dynamic of this years Tour de Beauce but I’d say if the first two stages are any indication we should be treated to another great day of racing.
