CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
It’s no Champs Elysees but if you were to ask me which finish line is the most prestigious in all of Canada my gut tells me the Grande Allee in Quebec City. So many great races have played out in the historic streets of this incredible city over the years with the Tour de Beauce, Trans Canada Tour and the recent WorldTour races held in the fall. An enthusiastic crowd always meets the riders here and today was no different.
For the Canadian Cycling Team, our stage tactic were a bit muddied as we were trying to balance going for the stage win but also take advantage and try and move Christian up in the overall standings.
It’s funny being on this side of the fence. Trying to break down Paco and his team was certainly a role I envisioned the past two years as I would always try and guess what the opposition had in store for the Spaniard when I was his director. I had good insight into how strong his team was and what their capabilities were. What I couldn’t predict is how the other teams in contention would execute their game plan. The other team with the firepower and interest akin to us would be UHC and we were hoping they would share in the dismantling of 5-hour ENERGY.
The key to a jersey defense on these circuits is dictating what break goes up the road and hopefully allowing some rope to a group that can be contained later in the stage. 5-hour got their wish as the first serious move put no real pressure on. The second major move contained some good riders but with Oscar Clark of Hincapie the highest on GC sitting 2:56 back, 5-hour would do well in feathering the gap open. Along with Clark would be Driscoll of Jamis, former Quebec stage winner De Maar of UHC, Lewis of Champion Systems and our own points jersey wearer Boivin. These 5 would gain a maximum of 3:30 which put Clark briefly in virtual yellow.
Honestly, this break wasn’t exactly what Cycling Canada was looking for and we needed more pressure emerging out of the pack. After Guillaume picked up and intermediate with 5 laps to go stretching his tenuous points lead, I ordered the team to stir up hostilities once again, but even I was unprepared for what happened next.
Over race radio, it announced a break of 4 riders bridging up to the break. 3 of which were from Team Canada!! Talk about showing your cards! I ordered Guillaume to sit on the break and be ready for the catch as the rest of his breakmates would surely hitch on to the Maple Leaf express! Our tactics were out in the open for all to see and it would be a matter of simple strength.
With Cooper, Britton and Guillaume driving the pace for team leader Meier it was just a matter of sitting back and hoping the boys had enough in the tank to launch Christian into yellow. Unfortunately the price paid for getting the gap proved to high as our three workers would sacrifice perhaps just a bit too early leaving a committed Christian to push and pull the break remnants to fight for the stage victory. The gap at the bottom of Cote de la Montagne was 28 seconds shy of what we needed for that yellow and certainly Paco would close the gap himself the last time up with the finish sitting atop the famous Grande Allee.
Christian would make up 41 seconds and move from 8th to 6th on GC while placing 5th on the stage. Not the rewards that were maybe warranted by the tremendous effort of the team.
Tomorrow is the last stage with another tricky and difficult circuit race in St. Georges. Perhaps a slight change in gameplan is on offer but one thing is for certain and that is I can count on another professional and inspired performance from my All Star selection of Canadian Elite men.
— Gord Fraser, Director Sportif
