June 19, 2005 — For Stage 6, the final stage of the 2005 Tour de Beauce Bell, the sun finally came out to greet both riders and fans after a solid week of cold, rainy conditions.

This year’s route in downtown Saint-Georges was purported to be even more difficult than in past years, with a sizeable climb each lap, and several technical chicanes and S-turns, which demanded flawless strategy and placement for success.

The 12-lap final stage challenged the riders to race up and down a 7% grade hill over roughly 6 kilometres – all this after five days of racing. The tough course took its toll with 20 abandons recorded, among them Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics), Cory Jay (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology), previous yellow jersey wearer Dominique Rollin (Equipe du Quebec), and yesterday’s second place finisher Domenico Passuello (Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska).

The action began on the first lap with several riders attacking until an initial breakaway including Doug Ollerenshaw (Health Net/Maxxis), David O’Loughlin (Navigators), Tim Johnson (Jittery Joe’s), Eric Wohlberg, Glen Alan Chadwick (Cycling News), and others was established. Their 15-second lead was short-lived, and several minutes later the renegades were caught, only to try their luck again, this time making it stick.

After three hours of racing, a tiny chase group including Dominique Perras (Canadian National Team), Mark Walters (Navigators), Mike Jones (Health Net/Maxxis), and Jamie Burrow (Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska) took off to catch the breakaway and in the process gained a 20-second lead on the main pack with the lead group 20 seconds ahead. Things looked troublesome for Jean-Sèbastien Béland (Equipe du QuÈbec) on lap 7, when he was dropped from the main breakaway on the grueling 120 Street climb – however he was able to power his way back to the break.

The sentiment of “˜show’ was alive and well in today’s stage as breaks and attacks were prominent with key riders escaping and being caught at various times including yesterday’s stage winner Charles Dionne (Team Canada), his teammate Perras, Tomasz Lesniak (Paged-MBK), Tim Johnson (Jittery Joe’s), Best Young Rider Brandon Crichton (Ital Pasta/Belmire) and Doug Ollerenshaw.

The breakaways continued to work hard and at one point the time-gap became an impressive 1-minute 40 second lead over the main peloton lead by Navigators, who were clearly looking out for the interests of their golden boy and race leader, Nathan O’Neill.

Things heated up with two laps to go as Ollerenshaw, Perras, and Bruno Langlois (Volkswagon-Trek) duked it out for the lead. Perras was looking good and with 15 kilometres to the finish Langlois fell back leaving a space for Cameron Jennings (Cyclingnews.com) and Poland’s Krzysztof Mermer (Paged-MBK) to join in the sprinting fun. The three caught Perras and soon after Ollenrenshaw made his deadly move at just the right time with 5 kilometres to go. He got a gap and hammered it out to the finish line to take Stage 6. Hot on his heels were Jennings, Mermer, and Perras, coming in at second, third and fourth places respectively.

Behind Symmetrics could not dent the Navigators stronghold on the yellow jersey which stayed with Nathan O’Neill as he crossed the line in the small finishing field. O’Neill’s teammate David O’Loughlin kept the White Jersey as well. The Best Young Rider’s Red jersey also remained on the back of ItalPasta’s Brandon Crichton and Wojciech Kalemba (Paged-MKB) will take the polka-dot climber’s jersey home with him to his native Poland.

This year’s Tour de Beauce Bell has been once again worthy of its international reputation. Riders were tested by new additions and modifications to the race routes in addition to unseasonally cold temperatures. Quebec has also proven once again that it’s a hot-bed of cycling and cycling talent – Quebecois riders won three stages in addition to sporting the yellow leader’s jersey for three days.

Stage 6 Results

1 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3.26.39
2 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 0.19
3 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout
4 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 0.22
5 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 0.41
6 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
7 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team
8 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics
9 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team
10 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari
11 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics
12 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout
13 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance
14 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com
15 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout
16 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
17 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport
18 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance
19 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari
20 Nathan O’Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance
21 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics
22 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport
23 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek
24 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis
25 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com
26 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis
27 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team
28 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
29 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport
30 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 2.30
31 David O’Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 5.21
32 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 7.11
33 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 11.32
34 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout
35 Johny Hayes (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 16.29
36 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com
37 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com
38 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec
39 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com
40 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team
41 Alex Richer (Can) Le Yeti 33.03
42 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 36.58
DNF Mike Sayers (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis
DNF Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance
DNF Cesar Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance
DNF Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance
DNF Jens Schwedler (Ger) Stevens Racing Team
DNF Claudio Bartoli (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
DNF Domenico Passuello (Ita) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska
DNF Chris Kuhl (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology
DNF Cory Jay (Can) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology
DNF Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari
DNF Richard Bowker (NZl) Italpasta – Belmire Transport
DNF Eric Wohlberg (Can) Symmetrics
DNF Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics
DNF Bradley Fairall (Can) Symmetrics
DNF Zach Bell (Can) Canadian National Team
DNF Dominique Rollin (Can) Equipe du Quebec
DNF Jean-Sébastien Béland (Can) Equipe du Quebec
DNF Jean-Sébastien Maheu (Can) Volkswagen-Trek
DNF Kevin Lacombe (Can) Volkswagen-Trek
DNF Raphaël Tremblay (Can) Volkswagen-Trek

Mountains classification

1 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 37 pts
2 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 28
3 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 27
4 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 24
5 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 19
6 Nathan O’Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 17
7 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 16
8 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 14
9 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 14
10 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 14
11 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 13
12 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 12
13 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 11
14 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 10
15 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 9
16 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 8
17 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport 7
18 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 6
19 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport 6
20 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance 6
21 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 5
22 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 4
23 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3
24 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 2
25 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 1

Teams classification

1 Navigators Insurance 65.33.46
2 Health Net pb Maxxis 10.34
3 Symmetrics Cycling 11.15
4 Paged – Mbk – Scout 11.43
5 Canada National Team 32.00
6 Team Cyclingnews.com 37.19
7 Amore & Vita — Beretta 37.26
8 Italpasta – Transport Belmire C.C. 51.53
9 Jittery Joe’s – Kalahari 2.37.22

Final GC

1 Nathan O’Neill (Aus) Navigators Insurance 21.52.10
2 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics 0.12
3 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance 0.35
4 John Lieswyn (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 1.17
5 Dawid Krupa (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 1.19
6 Glen Alan Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 1.38
7 Mark Walters (Can) Navigators Insurance
8 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 2.41
9 Krzysztof Mermer (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 2.48
10 Mike Jones (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3.05
11 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 3.42
12 Brandon Crichton (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport 4.00
13 Dominique Perras (Can) Canadian National Team 4.59
14 David O’Loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance 6.15
15 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 6.45
16 Charles Dionne (Can) Canadian National Team 7.31
17 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 7.52
18 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 9.46
19 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics 13.49
20 Martin Gilbert (Can) Volkswagen-Trek 13.56
21 Justin England (USA) Health Net pb Maxxis 15.55
22 Chris Isaac (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport 22.17
23 Timothy Johnson (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 22.31
24 Max Plaxton (Can) Canadian National Team 24.15
25 Finn Heitmann (Ger) Stevens Racing Team 24.37
26 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita-Beretta-Polska 26.07
27 Sven De Weerdt (Bel) Team Cyclingnews.com 26.43
28 Nat Faulkner (Can) Italpasta – Belmire Transport 27.16
29 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics 35.37
30 Alexandre Nadeau (Can) Equipe du Quebec 36.20
31 Tomasz Lesniak (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 36.36
32 Cory Lange (Can) Symmetrics 37.03
33 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.com 54.45
34 Bruno Langlois (Can) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 57.25
35 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Paged-Mbk-Scout 1.00.28
36 Mathieu Roy (Can) Equipe du Quebec 1.04.37
37 Ryan Roth (Can) Canadian National Team 1.06.31
38 Leigh Palmer (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 1.08.43
39 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 1.12.38
40 Jonathan Sundt (USA) Jittery Joe’s -Kalahari 1.18.38
41 Johny Hayes (USA) CRCA/Sakonnet Technology 1.58.47
42 Alex Richer (Can) Le Yeti 2.13.42