August 10, 2008 – Nothing much happened in Stage 7 on Friday from Bouillante to Le Moule. After three hard days in the mountains, everyone was more then happy to ride in the group for the whole day (160km). For us especially, this day was more than welcome after all the work we’d done during the previous days. The only unfortunate incident happened 2km from the finish when the yellow jersey collided with another rider and crashed. Dustin McBurnie and Cameron Evans nearly avoided this crash. When everything was said and done, Pena Pena was awarded the same time as the peloton as the crash happened in the last 3km of the stage.

Stages 8a, 8b
This morning though, when we showed up at the start of Stage 8a, the other rider involved in the crash, came to see us accusing us (or Cam) for trying to voluntarily crash into him and the yellow jersey. This was a funny discussion as his story didn’t stand up, and did not coincide with what we saw on television. After letting him argue with himself we went to see Pena Pena who confirmed none of our riders had touched him. The rider who was accusing us was actually the one who caused the crash. Cam and Pena Pena shook hands at the start line to kill any rumours in the peloton.

Stage 8a (Baie Mahault circuit 98.5 km) was pretty much uneventful. After working for Cam all week, I actually gave a green light to Dustin to slip himself into a breakaway. After making sure everything would be ok with Cam and that the UCC Team would take control of the race, he went up the road with a group of eight guys. They never managed to make it up to the initial group of three leaders, but he still finished 6th in the stage. Cam, André and Ryan rolled in at 1:37 with not too many changes on the GC. Cam did try a few attacks, but was always reeled back in by Pena Pena, his team, or other random riders.

Then came stage 8b, the awaited 15km time trial. The question on everyone’s lips was: does Cameron have enough distance to bring back Pena Pena? A gap of 1:28 is not an easy task over such a rider with only 15km in front of you. The TT opened with Ryan Belliveau posting the best early time and he led the race for a very long time. He finished 11th which was very good for someone who survived the past two days quite sick and dehydrated. His ride probably motivated the rest of the team. In fact, Dustin was the next guy to take the lead and ended up finishing 8th, while André Tremblay also finished strong in 10th position. No need to mention our team dominated the team ranking for this stage.

The table was now set for the big duel. Evans was the first to leave, and the yellow jersey would leave two minutes later. At the first time check at 3km the Colombian had a 9-second lead. Since we had talked with Cam not to start too hard for the first 5km as this course has a head wind, I felt somewhat positive and hoped Pena Pena could explode. Two km later they were tied – time to open up the machine. Evans rode the next 10km with everything he had opening a total gap of 39 seconds! Not enough you could say, but still an amazing performance by the 24-year-old.

Sunday’s final Stage 9 will take the riders from St-François to Pointe-à-Pitre where they’ll hit the final circuit (123km). The gap is now 44 seconds and we have a lot of respect for the yellow jersey rider. But rest assured, we will not let him rest until we all cross the final finish line!

A few numbers at this Tour:

– Minimal: hours on the beach! Come on Monday!
– 11: the number of power outages at our hotel so far
– 12: the intensity of Garrett McLeod’s sun burn on his chest (on a 1 to 10 scale) the day after he was pulled out of the race
– 14: the number of hours in a staff work day
– 28: the coldest we’ve seen on the car thermometer this far
– 29: the number of hours on the bike this week”¦ for the leaders!
– 41: the warmest we’ve seen on the car thermometer this far
– 43: the number of massages our soigneur, Nena Kennedy has given (so far)
– 93: number of riders left in the race
– 130: the number of Giant and Shimano water bottles we’ve used
– 130: number of starters
– 150: the number of Gu gels we hate this week”¦ and we ran out!
– 220: number of wheels TJ Worden-Rogers had to prepare this week
– 507: the minimum number of liters of water our team drank this week, not counting the ones we got at restaurants
– 1,246: total number of kilometers of the race
– Thousands: number of spectators and cycling fans along the roads!

This project is made possible under the Atlantic Centre’s Selection program, sponsored by Giant, Nelsons, Yakima, Croissant Soleil, Université de Moncton, Shimano and Gu. For this special project, we also want to send a special thank you to some very special donations which made it possible for us to get here:

– Terry Tomlin Sport Marketing
– Nick and Cory Jay
– Gavin Giles
– Mike’s Bike Shop (who also supplied TJ – Woodburn-Rogers as a mechanic)
– Velo NB
– Cycling PEI
– Bicycle NS

Stage 7 – August 8/08 – Bouillante – Le Moule, 157.01 km

Results

1. Fremin Jérôme (Fra) Ste-Austreberthe Pavilly Barent 4:11:05 (38,067 km/h)
2. Giovani Rousseau (Fra) Orange 0:07
3. Clément Magne (Fra) AS Police 0:20
4. Fabrice Cornelie (Fra) Club Région Guadeloupe 0:21
5. Luis Sablon (Fra) Union Cycliste du Moule
6. Frédéric Theobald (Fra) AS Baie-Mahault
7. Holger Sievers (Ger) Italie
8. Pierre Theophile (Fra) Digicel JCA
9. Jean-Claude Luce (Fra) Lynx Optique Eafit / UVN 0:32
10. Bernard Gene (Fra) Lynx Optique Eafit / UVN 0:42

28. Cameron Evans (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 0:42
73. André Tremblay (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 0:42
81. Dustin Macburnie (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 0:42
90. Ryan Belliveau (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:33


Stage 8a – August 9 – 0 Baie Mahault – Baie Mahault, 98.05 km

Results

1. Martial Gene (Fra) Excelsior 2:19:01 (42,513 km/h)
2. Leonard O Grullon Garcia (Dom) AS Baie-Mahault 0:01
3. Arnaud Girard (Fra) Ste-Austreberthe Pavilly Barent 0:21
4. Christophe Cospar (Fra) Orange 0:34
5. Eddy Lembo (Fra) Espoir du Sud 0:35
6 Dustin Macburnie (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 0:41
7. Philippe Palmiste (Pol) Lynx Optique Eafit / UVN 0:44
8. Freddy Hamlet (Fra) Excelsior 0:45
9. Rodrigue Lond As (Fra) Sélection Martinique
10. Giovani Rousseau (Fra) Orange

31 André Tremblay (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:37
32. Cameron Evans (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:37
89. Ryan Belliveau (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 4:17


Stage 8b – August 9 – Baie Mahault ITT, 15 km

Results

1. Adam Pierzga (Pol) Lynx Optique Eafit / UVN 18:16 (49,234 km/h)
2. Cameron Evans (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 0:13
3. Edwin Sanchez Anzola (Col) Union Cycliste Capesterrienne 0:15
4. Mickaël Clarico (Fra) AS Police 0:41
5. Andreï Medyannikov (Kaz) Matouba Rayon d’Argent 0:52
6. Flobert Pena Pena (Col) Union Cycliste Capesterrienne
7. Serge Nipau (Fra) AS Police 1:07
8. Dustin Macburnie (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:19
9. Leonard O Grullon Garcia (Dom) AS Baie-Mahault 1:20
10. André Tremblay (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:24

11. Ryan Belliveau (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 1:25


GC after Stage 8b

1. Flobert Pena Pena (Col) Union Cycliste
Capesterrienne
28:13:32
2. Cameron Evans (Can) Centre Nal Cyclisme
Atlantique 0:44
3. Edwin Sanchez Anzola (Col) Union Cycliste
Capesterrienne 6:45
4. Andreï Medyannikov (Kaz) Matouba Rayon
d’Argent 8:27
5. Martial Gene (Fra) Excelsior 12:21
6. Nelson Ismael Sanchez Jimenez (Dom) Matouba
Rayon D’argent 14:13
7. Leonard O Grullon Garcia (Dom) AS Baie-Mahault
14:28
8. Marechaux Régis (Fra) Digicel JCA 14:30
9. Serge Nipau (Fra) AS Police 15:06
10. Fremin Jérôme (Fra) Ste-Austreberthe Pavilly Barent 17:35

27. André Tremblay(Can)Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 34:54
35. Dustin Macburnie(Can)Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 40:14
91. Ryan Belliveau(Can)Centre Nal Cyclisme Atlantique 2:04:29


Team Classification

1. Union Cycliste Capesterrienne 83:51:24
2. Excelsior 25:14
3. Matouba Rayon d’argent 39:29
4. Ste-Austreberthe Pavilly Barenti 40:02
5. AS Baie-Mahault 41:56
6. AS Police 46:46
7. Lynx Optique Eafit/UVN 51:06
8. ZP Sport 51:29
9. Centre National Cyclisme Atlantique
54:33
10. Italian National Team 1:09:31