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Dal-Cin Takes Mont-Mégantic Queen Stage at Tour de Beauce – Swirbul in Yellow + INTERVIEW w/Winner

by pedalmag.com

June 15, 2017 (Mont-Mégantic National Park, QC) – Canada’s Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally Cycling), 26, took no prisoners en route to a decisive victory at the summit of Mont Mégantic on the queen stage of the 32nd Tour de Beauce, besting rival American rider, Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel). Dal-Cin’s teammate, the defending stage winner from last year, Sepp Kuss, claimed the final podium spot. – Dal-Cin interview below.

Matteo Dal Cin  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
Keegan Swirbul (USA) Jelly Belly P/B Maxxis, 5th on the stage, took over the yellow jersey and was followed closely by two Canucks led by Jack Burke (Can) Aevolo in 6th on the stage, putting him second overall. Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly P/B Maxxis in 7th sits third on the GC while Alexander Cowan (Can) Silber Pro Cycling in 13th is 4th overall. The win gave Canada back-to-back victories at the 32nd annual race.

Carpenter  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
Keegan Swirbul  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
Jack Burke (Aevelo)  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
At 30km an early break with three Canucks was soon up the road with Nigel Ellsay (Silber Pro Cycling), Alexander Cataford (Can) United Healthcare and Marc-Antoine Soucy (Can) Garneau Quebecor in the mix. Ellsay took a commanding lead in the battle for the KOM jersey as the break gained over three minutes.

in early break of six riders  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
The pack reeled them in on the second climb up Mont-Morne but Dal-Cin quickly tested the peloton’s legs again as five riders joined him and the winning move was formed including Carpenter, Ellsay, Cortlan Brown (USA) Canyon Bicycle, Gavin Mannion (USA) United Healthcare and Rafael Marquez Raigon (Esp) Inteja-MMR Dominican Cycling.

Winning break  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
This break gained almost 3 minutes as well but as the gap started to come down Dal-Cin animated things again. This time only Carpenter could respond and the two were away as the famous Megantic climb loomed ahead.

Winning break  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
At the foot of the 6-kilometer ascent the talented Ottawa native was in an intense duel with Carpenter as the duo were a minute up on three chasers with the pack another two minutes behind.

Dal-Cin vs Carpenter  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
Dal-Cin was clearly on a mission attacking and dropping Carpenter with three kilometres to go and he was able to take the time to savor a solo victory after 4:17:30 of racing with more than a minute on his closest pursuer. The Rally rider defended the stage for his team as third-placed Kuss, the winner here last year, claimed third. In 2016 Dal-Cin became the first Canadian to win the Redlands Bicycle Classic in its 32-year history.

Jordan Cheyne (Can)  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
The race for the yellow leader’s jersey raged behind as Swirbul crossed the line in 5th with Burke 6th and Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis in 7th. Now the three are locked in the GC battle in that order separated by 10 seconds with Alec Cowan (Can) Silber Pro Cycling in 4th at 1:07 back.

Nigel Ellsay (Can) KOM leader  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
Swirbul is also in the Red Jersey as leader in the Best Young classification. Ellsay takes the best climber’s jersey, while Carpenter will wear the White Jersey as the Points Leader.

Keegan Swirbul  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
With lots of action still to come it’s still anyone’s race. The last Canadian to win the Tour de Beauce was Svein Tuft in 2008. Jacques Landry, currently Cycling Canada’s HP Director, was the last Quebec champion in 1994.

“Winning on Mégantic is pretty special,” said Dal-Cin. “I have had some pretty ugly days on this stage, freezing and having to walk up it 2014, and then crashing in the big pileup in 2015.

Stage 2 podium (l-r) Carpenter, Dal-Cin, Kuss  ©  Pasquale Stalteri
It was incredible to have the chance to race for the win today! I’m just really stoked that I got the opportunity from the team to have a crack at it from the break when we had such a sure thing with Sepp. It means a lot that they let me play it out and waited to see what happened rather than bringing it back straight away.”

Interview with Dal-Cin

Results here.





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