June 16, 2017 (St-Jean-de-Lalande, QC) – Alec Cowan of Canadian team Silber Pro Cycling earned his career-first UCI victory this morning winning the 19.4 kindividual time trial on Stage 3a of the 2017 Tour de Beauce amidst torrential rain in the St-Jean-de-la-Lande region of Saint-Georges.

Cowan’s impressive solo performance, stopped the clock at 25:17, allowed him to rise to the top of the overall standings to take possession of the coveted yellow jersey. He also leads the points and best young rider classifications, receiving the white and red jerseys.

“This is not necessarily a surprise. When you put in a lot of effort, the results follow. I am confident of my abilities. I could not be happier about winning the race. My goal heading into the ITT was to narrow the gap in the overall standings, with a distant goal to lead the overall and take over the yellow jersey.”

“We have a good team here to defend the jersey. I have to be confident that we will be able to protect our lead in the overall standings. There is no reason we can not win the yellow jersey on Sunday.”

Cowan, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is in his first year with Silber Pro Cycling. In 2016, he was racing with the RaceClean, a Canadian Development Team.

Taylor Eisenhart of the Holowesko-Citadel team finished second of the stage, at 8 seconds behind the winner. Matteo Dal-cin (Rally Cycling), the winner of yesterday’s stage at Mont-Mégantic, climbed on the third step of the podium with a deficit of 16 seconds on the victorious time.

Tonight will be stage 3b, a short 77km road race in Saint-Georges. The ultimate stage of the 2017 Tour de Beauce will be webcast live on Sunday, June 18 here.

Full results here.