June 15, 2010 (Lac-Etchemin, QC) – Spain’s Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Heraklio-Murcia) put on a fine performance at the first Stage of the 25th Tour de Beauce, claiming the victory and all of the jerseys at the 165km race with a time of 4:11:21. Sergiy Grechyn (Ukr) Amore & Vita-Conad 8 placed second and Canada’s Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia) was third in the final sprint, at eight seconds behind.

The winner was very active throughout the day, taking part in all of the breakaways, including the longest on that stretched over 120 kilometres. Accompanied by Jay Thomson (RSA) Fly V Australia and Will Routley (Can) Team Canada, they managed a five-minute lead over the pack at one point in the race. Serrano Fernandez showed his strength when he flatted at the bottom of a long hill on a road under repair, and still was able to catch up to his two breakaway companions.

When the pack decided to take action, under the leadership of SpiderTech and CKT, the gap decreased rapidly and with 15km left, Serrano Fernandez parted company with the other two riders to become the sole leader. While Thomson and Routley were being overtaken by the peloton, the Spaniard managed to maintain his lead over the chasing pack and cross the finish line alone.

His victory is even more noteworthy as his team arrived in Saint Georges de Beauce in the early hours of the morning after a long journey. His performance this day earned him all individual honours. After accepting the stage winner’s jersey, he received the yellow jersey as the overall leader, the red jersey for best young rider (under 23), the polka-dot jersey as the best climber and finally the white jersey as the points leader.

“I am very happy with this victory,” said the winner, “but even more for the team. We traveled for 23 hours before arriving in Beauce. When our team manager realized that the other guys on the team were running out of energy, he told me to go all out. I never thought I would be caught; I never looked back and gave everything I had.”

Dionne, the top Canadian and Quebecer on this first stage, didn’t feel very good at the start in Lac Etchemin. “It really wasn’t going very well,” he said. “I am tired and last week I didn’t go very far in my training sessions. At the first hill today I wasn’t feeling like myself and even thought about quitting.”

“There are times when you try and try but it doesn’t produce much; yet today everything turned in my favour. When the breakaway took off, I told myself that the pack was moving slowly so I could recover a bit and that encouraged me. Then there was a crash, forcing the riders slow down again.”

Going downhill past the village of Buckland, some road repair work caused problems for some riders. There was a large hole in the road that was really difficult to see, which led to a dramatic fall where two riders, Alexander Kristoff (BMC Racing) and Matthew Bell (Team Canada) had to be taken to hospital.

As the finish line approached, Dionne saw his strength return. “I felt the finish line and it told me that I could make it. Maybe I started my sprint a little too far back, but I’m very happy finishing in third place.”

Andrew Pinfold (Unitedheatlhcare) finished fourth, followed by Christopher Jones (Team Type I), Derrick St-John (Garneau Club Chaussures), Ryan Roth (Spidertech), Volodymyr Bileka (Amore & Vita), Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) and Caleb Fairly (Garmin), all at eight seconds behind the winner.

Full results here.