April 29, 2013 (Beauharnois, QC) – Jean Sebastien Perron (Steven Racing p/b The Cyclery) took the win at the Senior Men’s Criterium Beauharnois on Saturday with Jean Samuel Deshaies (Ekoï-Devinci) in second and Robert Ralph (Team Medique p/b Silber Investments) in third earning their respective teams their first podiums of the season.

Team Medique p/b Silber Investments Report

Team Medique p/b Silber Investments has its first podium finish of the season, in the first criterium of the calendar in the municipality of Beauharnois. Robert Ralph finished 3rd, just in front of two of his teammates, namely James Piccoli (4th) as well as Benjamin Chartrand – a.k.a. “Ben Hur” – who came in 5th.

“I knew that there was a dangerous group in front and I said to myself that if I was patient, I could get up there and join them,” mentions Ralph. The riders were very aggressive in order to create a situation where they could use their numbers and strength to their advantage, which ended up leading to their success.

The 31 laps of the 1.6km circuit were done at an average speed of 43km/h. After the first 30km were filled with attacks, a breakaway of 10 riders escaped from the main peloton. In this group, Team Medique was represented by William Blackburn, James Piccoli, Robert Ralph and Benjamin Chartrand.

The citizens of Beauharnois needed to wait for the final 12km for this lead group to split into two, with Ralph and Piccoli in front and a group of chasers behind containing Blackburn and Chartrand. It was during this period that Ralph won the 5th Sprint Prime of the day. In the last lap, the peloton caught the chase group, but did not manage to catch the lead breakaway and “Ben Hur” Chartrand who was pushing some big watts for the finish line. This is where Robert finished in an excellent 3rd place, James 4th and Benjamin 5th.

According to Clodine Gilber, the manager of Team Medique, it is all in the team spirit: “This year we have developed a strong synergy between the riders of the team. They use lots of strategy and use their respective resources as best as they can for the team in order to achieve results,” she reports. The whole team is very proud of all of its members’ performances. You can really feel that a wave of motivation and enthusiasm has taken over the team.

An honorable mention goes out to 13-year-old Adam Wolfe, who rolled up to the start line of the first race of his life in the “minime” category wearing the colours of Team Medique p/b Silber Investments, as well as Eric Cousineau oui rode is first ever criterium in the “Senior 3″ category.

For more information on Team Medique p/b Silber Investments or even more photos and videos, we invite you to visit our website at www.teammedique.com and to follow us on our Facebook page and Twitter.

Full results HERE.