June 14/23 19:21 pm - Matisse Julien Sweeps the Jerseys on Stage 1 of Beauce
Posted by Editoress on 06/14/23
The 35th edition of the Tour de Beauce got off to a strong start on Wednesday, with multiple breakaways; one that almost went to the line. In the end, it came down to a sprint between two of the favourites - Canadian Matisse Julien (Team Ecoflo Chronos) and American Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) - with Julien throwing his bike to take the win. Matteo Dal-Cin (Toronto Hustle) took third. With his win, Julien won all four jerseys - Best Young Rider, Climber, Points and the Yellow Jersey of race leader.
Matisse Julien (Team Ecoflo Chronos) and Tyler Stites (Project Echelon) throw their bikes at the line
"I think we showed that we were a strong team," said Julien. "We have big objectives for this race. We've raced in Europe since January, and came here for our first Canadian race since the team started. It's a perfect finish for me, and we're pretty happy with how it turned out today."
Rain forecast earlier in the week held off, but it was an overcast and humid day of racing. The stage took the field north of St-Georges to a 25 kilometre circuit that the riders completed three times - with a KoM in the middle of each lap - before heading back to finish on a 6.5%, 1.2 kilometre climb.
There were two main breaks for the day, the first went in the initial 15 kilometres, with Ethan Pauly (Cycling BC) and Oliver Dowd (UNC Lotto-Max). They gained a maximum of nearly three minutes, with Pauly dropping Dowd before the first KoM. Pauly managed to stay away until almost the second KoM, but was reeled in.
Ethan Pauly (Cycling BC) and Oliver Dowd (UNC Lotto-Max)
Evan Russell (Cycling BC) and William Goodfellow (Yeoleo Factory)
Evan Russell about to be caught 100m before the line
The bunch stayed together until after the last KoM, when Evan Russell (Cycling BC) and William Goodfellow (Yeoleo Factory) rolled off the front. They took the gap out to 1:50 before the peloton got serious about chasing. With 25 kilometres to go it was still a minute, and Russell dropped Goodfellow for the final 20 kilometres. The gap kept dropping, but Russell still started the last climb with over 20 seconds. He crested the climb in sight of the finish line still in the lead, but the leaders caught him with a little over 100 metres to go. Russell still hung on for a respectable 13th place.
"I went with [Goodfellow] with about 60K to go," explained Russell, "and honestly, we just kept rolling, and building time. But about 25K to go they started bringing down the time ... I left it all out there and I reached the bottom of the hill with, I think, 35 seconds, but I just knew with my legs that it wasn't going to be enough. As I was climbing, I kept looking back, and there was the big pack coming ... It was a little agonizing, but it was fun, it's just fun to be able to race bikes."
"When we hit the climb I was a little bit concerned," admitted Julien, " but when we launched the sprint we were gaining speed and he was losing speed. But, yeah, it was kind of close. The guys did a good job of keeping it [the break] close enough so that we could bring him back on the final climb."
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