June 17, 2018 (Saint-Georges, QC) – Quebec’s James Piccoli won the 33rd Tour de Beauce on Sunday in the streets of Saint-Georges. The winner of the 78km Stage 4 criterium on Saturday in Quebec City, Piccoli was sitting eighth in the overall standings at the start of this final 122.4km Stage 5. A victorious breakaway with a sufficient gap allows him to climb on the highest step of the final podium.

Against all the odds, the new champion of the 2018 edition has filled a gap of 1min10s to finish fourth in this fifth and final stage and thus get his hands on the yellow jersey he had not worn once since the beginning of the week. This is obviously his career-best UCI victory.

“I can’t believe it! I never thought about it during the stage. I knew it was close to two laps from the end. My teammate Jordan Cheyne did an amazing job up front. It’s an honor,” said the new champion – full video interview below.

The last Canadian to win the Tour de Beauce was Svein Tuft in 2008, but Jacques Landry was the last Quebec champion in 1994. Twenty-four years later, Piccoli added his name to the charts.

In an overwhelming heat, this final stage was brilliantly won by Pier-André Côté (Silber Pro Cycling), who scored his second win this week. “I am really happy. After my first win on Wednesday, I thought the rest was icing on the cake!”

Daniel Whitehouse (Interpro) finished second, followed by the tireless Bruno Langlois (Team Quebec), 39 years old. Langlois almost repeated his feat of 2012 when he was alone in the lead with one kilometer to go. “I attacked with pride,” he laughed.

In front of a nice crowd, the 122.4 kilometers were covered in 3 h 02 min 47s, at an average speed of 40.1 km / h. A breakaway of eight riders led the event.

In the general classification, Piccoli won with 11 seconds ahead of Whitehouse and 27 seconds over Serghei Tvetcov, wearer of the yellow jersey at the start of the ultimate stage.

Tvetcov, third at the 2014 Tour de Beauce, wasn’t successful in surpassing that result. The latter was not very happy after the race. Despite good work by his teammates, they could not close a stable gap around two minutes late in the stage. The Canadian team was more aggressive on the road. Tvetcov, however, retains the white jersey of the points classification.

Quebecker Adam Roberge (Silber Pro Cycling), second overall at the start of this last stage, had some problems at the end of the race. He finished 11th in the standings, 2min44s from the lead. He also handed the red jersey to Thomas Revard (Hagens Berman Axon). Benjamin Perry (Team Canada) wins polka dot jersey as king of the mountain. Canada also took home the Team Classification.

As expected, the difficult urban circuit did a lot of damage. In recent years, this course gives rise to a street battle while only the strongest manage to survive. In 2017, Andzs Flaksis, eighth overall prior to the last stage, also won the Tour de Beauce to everyone’s surprise.

Full results here.