The young Canadian Matisse Julien, 20, took all the victories during the inaugural stage of the Tour de Beauce, held this Wednesday from the Espace Carpe Diem in Saint-Georges, with a route of 143 kilometers and at an average speed of more than 42 km/h.
In addition to the leader’s yellow jersey, which he narrowly took from the American Tyler Stites (Project Echelon Racing), the cyclist from Laval, a member of the Écoflo Chronos team, also took the red jersey for the best young cyclist, the white for being the leader by points and the best polka dot jersey for the best climber.
“I didn’t know I had the points one and I didn’t think I had the climbers one either. I thought they only gave points to the top three in the mountains classification and it was in the top ten. That’s what helped me,” said Julien after receiving her new wardrobe.
However, it was the yellow jersey that he liked to wear the most. “It’s very cool, it confirms all the work we’ve done,” said the cyclist who has just returned from a great performance at the Ronde de l’Oise in France, in which he led for three stages in more than a third place there. . . “I had a crash on the last day of the Ronde de L’Oise, so I’ve been more relaxed since then,” he said.
Behind him, the American Tyler Stites entered second in this initial stage; while Canadian Matteo Dal-Cin was third. This Thursday Matisse will wear the yellow jersey and his Ecoflo Chronos teammates will wear his other jerseys.
The Laval resident expects to have to work hard to keep his yellow jersey for the next few days. “It is a difficult lap, on Friday there is Mont Mégantic and everything will be decided there, it will be very difficult to keep the jersey,” he said.
“Since I don’t consider myself a climber, I’ll just try to waste as little time as possible on Mont Mégantic. And tomorrow’s course [Thursday] is also difficult, even if it’s a long straight, but we have a good team with good sprinters and good climbers,” Julien continued.
The second stage will take place in the Municipality of Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, which is one of the new partners. In the Etchemins sector, it will take runners to the Massif du Sud and the village of Saint-Odilon.
For Francis Rancourt, CEO of the Tour de Beauce, a huge sigh of relief was breathed after the start of this first Tour de Beauce in four years. “We are happy to have fifteen teams at the start line and one hundred riders, because, for a while, we thought we only had twelve,” he told local media.
Stage 3 will undoubtedly be the most impressive in the Lac-Mégantic sector. The runners will cover 169 km to finish with the ascent to Mont-Mégantic. “It is the queen stage of the Tour de Beauce every year. This stage is the most popular, because it is the most spectacular”, added Francis Rancourt.
Like every year, stage 4 will go to Quebec City for a 2km course in the heart of the city completed 35 times. To conclude, the Tour de Beauce will return to the streets of Saint-Georges for the last 122 kilometers. The course remains the same as in previous years, but the start and finish site is hosted by Venture.
Source: https://www.lesoleil.com/sports