June 4, 2007 (Baie St. Paul, QC) — The Volkswagen/Trek UCI Continental Team presented by Eska showed their depth this weekend at the Grand Prix de Charlevoix Stage race in Baie St. Paul, Quebec by winning two stages and the overall.

One of Quebec’s most prestigious races started out with a flat 15km time trial, out and back from the city. The pro men had to deal with rapidly dropping temperatures as a cold front moved in giving them a strong headwind after the turn-around.

Ryan Mckenzie (VW-Trek) momentarily led the TT ahead of Kelly Benefit/Medifast’s Dominique Perras and EVA/Devinci’s Mathieu Toulouse until he was bumped by his own teammate William Goodfellow who came in two seconds ahead of him. Then it was time for the last rider in, Alex Cloutier (VW-Trek) to prove that he still has it. Cloutier, was able to knock his two teammates down the podium. Keven Lacombe, also riding for VW/Trek, placed fourth demonstrating the team’s depth.

That evening all the riders showed up with Oakley clear lenses to race the half hour of power crit through the dark and narrow downtown course in Baie St. Paul. Once again it was the VW/Trek team putting on a race clinic for the other teams. Lacombe sprinted in for the win followed by Mathieu Roy (EVA/Devinci) and Cloutier in third with no change in the overall classification.

Day two was set to be a classic. A 130km deadly course up and down the hills rising from the St. Laurence River with at least four of the climbs topping out at 18%. No more than ten kilometers into the race a group of 11 broke free of the pack, up the day’s first long ascent. A handful of GC riders were present including Perras, Toulouse, Eric Boily (EVA-Devinci), Joel Dion Poitras (EVA/Devinci) Peter Ladd (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault), Pascal Bussières (Ryno Performance Club Cycliste).

Also tagging along were Mckenzie, Lacombe and team mate Nick Row. Over the next grueling 70 kms the group wittled down to a group of six including Toulouse, Boily, Perras and Mckenzie, who was the leader of the race at this point.

With this invisible jersey on his back, Mckenzie was left alone to try and neutralize all attacks. With 15 kms to go, Mckenzie drove to the front of the small group and set a high tempo to try and extinguish the others assaults.

With 2 kms to go the riders found themselves at the base of a climb that lead all the way to the finish where Mckenzie once again fell under attack. The first strong move came from Perras who who was followed by Bussières. Boily closed the gap to the two riders and sprinted ahead to take the win. Buissière followed in behind for second and Perras held on for third.

Mckenzie fought hard over the last 200m to hold on to a GC lead of 10 seconds and take the overall win at the GP Charlevoix over Boily and Perras.

The Volkswagen/Trek Team, along with a handful of other Canadian teams, will be racing the International Tour de Beauce that starts next week in Georgesville, Quebec.

Overall after 3 stages

Senior 1-2

1. Ryan McKenzie (Volkswagen-Trek) 4:22:38
2. Éric Boily (EVA-Devinci) 0:10
3. Dominique Perras (Kelly Benefit Strategies/MediFast) 0:24
4. Derrick St-John (The Cyclery)4:23:05 0:27
5. Mathieu Toulouse (EVA-Devinci) 0:41
6. Pascal Bussières (Ryno Performance Club Cycliste), Ryno P 2:42
7. William Goodfellow (Volkswagen-Trek) 4:07
8. Peter Ladd (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault) 4:34
9. Joël Dion- Poitras (EVA-Devinci) 4:37
10. André Tremblay (Volkswagen-Trek) 5:08
11. Osmond Bakker (The Cyclery) 5:11
12. Jamie Lamb (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault ) 5:15
13. Raphael Tremblay (EVA-Devinci) 5:32
14. Keven Lacombe (Volkswagen-Trek) 5:38
15. Charles B. Thibault (EVA-Devinci) 6:05
16. Luc Dionne (CIBC Wood-Gundy 6:05
17. Sébastien Rousseau (Marinoni-Cadence, Quilicot- Rackultra) 6:39
18. Thierry Laliberté (Sportif Bromont) 7:23
19. Pierre- Olivier Boily (Sleeman Clear TATV ) 7:38
20. Jean- Francois Racine (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault ) 7:41
21. Benjamin Martel (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault ) 7:42
22. Alexandre Cloutier (Volkswagen-Trek) 12:10
23. Glen Rendall (Ride with Rendall) 13:09
24. Alexi Richer (CIBC Wood-Gundy), Le Yéti 14:18
25. Nicholas Rowe (Volkswagen-Trek) 14:22
26. Frédéric Boivin (EVA-Devinci) 14:28
27. David Gruber (CIBC 16:58
28. Tim Hucker (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault) 20:53
29. Marc Boudreau (Ride with Rendall) 21:59
30. Benoît Lussier (CIBC Wood-Gundy) 22:57
31. Yves Lefebvre (CIBC Wood-Gundy) 23:16
32. Stephen Keeping (West of Quebec Wheelers) 23:24
33. mathieu Gautier (CIBC Wood-Gundy) 23:48
34. Olivier Savaria indépendant RP 24:58:00
35. Hubert Zicat Demers (Équipe Cycliste) 25:37:00
36. Martin Caya (Drummond ) 26:54:00
37. Jean- Michel Lachance (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault) 26:54:00
38. Mathieu Fleury (Équipe Iris) 27:16:00
39. Christian Deshaies (Volkswagen-Trek) 4:49:54 27:16:00
40. Martin Daviault (Marinoni-Cadence) 4:53:12 30:34:00
41. Alexander Fulton (West of Quebec Wheelers) 34:05:00
42. Edward Forest (Équipe Iris 36:12:00
43. Maxime Joly-Smith (Martin Swiss Cycles) 37:43:00
44. Joel Sidhu (West of Quebec Wheelers) 37:54:00
45. Sean Wakefield (Ride with Rendall) 43:27:00
46. Shawn Clarke (West of Quebec Wheelers)5:14:18 51:40:00
DNF Mathieu Roy (EVA-Devinci)
DNF Michael Joannisse (Garneau-Crocs-Ogilvy Renault )
DNF Jean- Sébastien Béland (Volkswagen-Trek)
DNF Hugues Lapointe Bluberi-Martin Swiss Cycling Team
DNF Philippe Boisvert (West of Quebec Wheelers)
DNF Lyne Bessette (Volkswagen-Trek)
DNF Carl Desroches (Bluberi-Martin Swiss Cycling Team)
DNF Michael Nash (Ride with Rendall)
DNF Geoff O’Toole (West of Quebec Wheelers)
DNF Raphael Gagné (Rocky Mountain Haywood)
DNF Steve Maurice (CIBC Wood-Gundy )