July 21, 2016 (Malartic, Que.) – Horrible weather conditions were the order of the day as racers completed the 52km fourth stage of the Tour de l’Abitibi in Malartic. Fortunately, the pouring rain did not cause any crashes, as racers still rode at an average speed of 48 kilometres an hour. It is the American racer Ian Garrison who got the better of the pack, from which there were only a few short breaks. French racer Lucas Grall took second place, followed by the Amos racer, Charles-Étienne Chrétien, who stepped on the podium for the second time this week.

Not One, But Two Jerseys for McNulty
This morning McNulty stole the brown jersey to his teammate Stites by winning the individual time trial event with a comfortable lead of 28 seconds. Despite finishing 9th in today’s stage, McNulty kept his brown jersey. As today’s stage did not include a King of the Mountain Challenge, New Zealand racer Hayden Strong keeps his polka dot jersey for the third consecutive stage. Lucas Grall of Team France takes the orange jersey once again, whereas Jules Gillian is crowned best young rider of the day.

A Battle Between the Americans and the Danes
It is the American and Danish national teams that will battle for victory seeing that they now occupy the first nine positions out of the top ten in the overall rankings. According to Olivier Grondin of radio-Tour, “the Tour became serious business following the individual time trial event. We now know who the true contenders for the final victory of the Tour de l’Abitibi are.” As for the Quebeckers, Olivier Hamel of Team Québec ranked seventh today.

Tomorrow, the GoldCorp Stage
Tomorrow the racers will complete a loop of 100.7 km in the Témiscamingue region. The stage start will take place in front of Notre-Dame-du-Nord’s high school at 2:30 p.m., and the racers will ride through Lorrainville, Ville-Marie, Duhamel-Ouest, and St-Bruno-de-Guigues, and will return to Notre-Dame-du- Nord to finish off the race.

Results

1. Ian Garrison (USA) Team USA 1:05:18
2. Lucas Grall (Fra) Team France
3. Charles-Etienne Chretien (Can) Team Canada
4. Morten Hulgaard (Den) Team Denmark
5. Joshua Anderson (USA) Washington Spin Development
6. Tyler J. Stites (USA) Team USA 0:01
7. Olivier Hamel (Can) Team Quebec
8. Eugene Kakizaki (Jpn) Team Japan
9. Brandon A. McNulty (USA) Team USA
10. Eric Brunner (USA) Washington Spin Development
11. Matthew Staples (Can) Team Canada
12. Simon Ouellette (Can) Andre Cycle Kayca RDS
13. James Grant (Can) Cycling BC
14. Quinton Disera (Can) Centurion Next Wave
15. Kurt Penno (Can) Stingray Trek Lacasse
16. Trey Hedgecock (USA) Arizona Select p/b Santini
17. Noah Simms (Can) Team Canada
18. Jonathan Cassivi (Can) Team Quebec
19. Alexander Chrystall (USA) E.C. Devo
20. Cullen Browne (Nzl) Stingray Trek Lacasse

GC after Stage 20
1. Brandon A. McNulty (USA) Team USA 6:51:16
2. Ian Garrison (USA) Team USA 0:28
3. Morten Hulgaard (Den) Team Denmark 0:31
4. Mikkel Bjerg (Den) Team Denmark 0:39
5. Andreas Kron (Den) Team Denmark 0:47
6. Cameron A. Beard (USA) Team USA 0:50
7. Tyler J. Stites (USA) Team USA 0:55
8. Jakob Egholm (Den) Team Denmark 0:56
9. Christopher H. Blevins (USA) Team USA 1:00
10. Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Team Canada 1:09
11. Jules Gilliam (USA) Team USA
12. Kevin Goguen (USA) Washington Spin Development 1:10
13. Ruben Bacon (USA) Stingray Trek Lacasse 1:14
14. Matthew Staples (Can) Team Canada 1:18
15. Thierry Kirouac Marcassa (Can) Team Canada
16. Alexandre Pagnat (Fra) Team France 1:27
17. Joshua Anderson (USA) Washington Spin Development 1:28
18. Ethan Palamarek (Can) IAMGold
19. Jacob Skrip (USA) Young Medalists 1:31
20. Carne Groube (Nzl) Team New Zealand

Full results here.