Cormac McGeough (EC Makadence Primeau Vélo) won stage 2 at the Tour de Beauce, and moved into the overall lead.
McGeough took a solo win with 20 seconds to spare ahead of runner-up Evan Russell (BC Cycling) and overnight leader Matisse Julien (Ecoflo Chronos) in Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne.
The EC Makadence Primeau Vélo rider made his winning move out of a breakaway over the final climb of the day, at Frampton, with roughly 10km remaining in the race.
McGeough leads the overall classification heading into stage 3's 169km decisive race that starts in Lac-Mégantic and finishes at the summit of Mont Mégantic.
How it unfolded
Stage 2 on Thursday is a 168.9km loop with three intermediate sprints and three classified climbs that ended in Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne.
The race opened straight away under heavy, overcast skies with the first categorised climb, cresting the summit just 4.3km from the start in downtown Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne. Sporadic accelerations were quickly closed down as the peloton rolled across the opening 50km.
Evan Russell (Cycling BC), who was part of the late breakaway on stage 1, was the first rider to make a separation. He was joined by his breakaway companion from the previous day, William Goodfellow (Yoeleo Factory), as well as Laurent Gervais (Cannondale Echelon p/b 4iiii), Braden Kersey (TaG Cycling), Maximilien Moreau (Premier Tech X Endo Lévis), and Bruno Langlois (Vélo Cartel) for a solid group of six.
After the first intermediate sprint, Russell rolled ahead of Gervais for top points, David Buschler (Storck-Metropol Cycling) and Simon Bolot (Team Macadam’s Cowboys) bridged to the group to make it a solid group of eight with 115km to go. Race leader Matisse Julien (Team Ecoflo Chronos) remained in the peloton, allowing the group a short reign of 30 seconds.
The second intermediate sprint followed 23km later at St-Camille church, with Gervais crossing the line ahead of Russell this time.
After the mid-way point of the stage, the breakaway worked together on the approach to the categorised climb of St-Magloire, which left 72.5km to race. Kersey was the first to pass the top of the climb, followed by Goodfellow and Gervais, and the other five in the breakaway strung out behind.
The group of eight stretched their advantage to more than two minutes as they headed past the Parc du Massif du Sud for a 50-kilometre stretch toward the final intermediate sprint. Along this section, Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon Racing) launched a solo chase.
Cormac McGeough also chased the lead group just ahead of the final intermediate sprint with Luke Valenti, Ethan Sittlington, Ethan Craine, Aidan Oliphant, Axel Forner and William Toussaint.
Julien Gagne took the points at the third intermediate sprint across from the Miller Zoo 13km to go, followed by Gervais and Valenti. The lead group and chasers united at the front gaining over a minute on the peloton.
That was followed to the final climb at Frampton and 9.4km to the finish back in Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, where McGeough made his winning solo attack. He held 20 seconds advantage with four kilometres to the finish and then crossed the finish line with the stage win ahead of the reduced field.
Results
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