Another fantastic day for the Jet Fuel/ Norco Bicycles squad at the Tour de Quebec, this time paid off with a result! Today’s 143km stage featured 13 laps of a 11km circuit with a short tough steep kicker each lap (for Ontario folk, similar to Effingham). All of the previous stages somehow end up finishing in a sprint and we were anticipating that perhaps this stage might shake things up and cause some splits. With this in mind my thought was that by maybe going in the breakaway early might be a good strategy than to try to follow all the aggression up the climb of each lap. The peloton went around the first lap to the base of the climb and I just made sure that I was near the front and was one of the first guys to hit it, as it seems to be a better strategy in case I have to drift back a bit. I did just that – carried my momentum and punched it. In so doing, I quickly found myself off the front of the group that didn’t seem to be interested in lightning it up just yet, on the first lap. Well when you have a gap there is only one proper thing to do, put your head down and keep going and see if anybody decides to bridge. I looked back again, and to my surprise I was really gone, by few hundred meters. I thought what the heck, keep on going!

1 lap and not to bee seen again till after 110km Credit: Velogazette

I pressed hard tempo and was out of sight for over a half a lap until finally to my relief I saw assistance of 3 riders bridging up to me. Two BikeReg.com guys, an Ecoi rider and me… non of the riders from Top GC teams – I knew it was just a doomsday break on a leash, to be caught in a matter of time. In full honesty it didn’t even hit me that there was a potential to steal the KOM jersey at that point, as the gap for the first lap was around 30s and didn’t seem to grow much, so I just rode with my break-mates up the hill on the 3^rd lap for my first KOM… It wasn’t until a lap later, when gap opened up to 2+ minutes, and after doing some basic math that I figured I could end up overtaking the jersey, theoretically, by winning the remaining 3 designated summits! To do that it meant that my break had to survive until the last two laps, which seemed not very promising as my break-mates were starting to fall apart with not even half way through the race.

up the KOM. Credit: Velogazette

My secret weapon move. Credit: Velogazette

I kept on chugging along with hard pulls to keep pace up, and the gap stayed steadily at around 2min… until with about 5 laps left all of a sudden we heard it was 30s! Damn! I’m doooomed I thought…not a chance of surviving another lap if it got heated up behind. Luckely guys got shaken up by the news and picked up the pace instead, that’s the spirit! We pressed on the gas and I could feel the heartrate elevate significantly higher and mini cramps starting to set in. 4 laps to go I kept the pressure on the hill and end up losing one of the BikeReg guys, surprisingly one who was doing more work, which left only me and Ecoi working on most part. 10km still to go to base of the last KOM points that I HAVE to win in order to get the jersey, but the gap is down to 20s – I could see them on our toes!!! It was crunch time, do or die! I didn’t just spend all day in the break for nothing I told myself and went full throttle, TT style for the remaining of the lap.

Last grind to the KOM with peloton in hot pursuit 20s back. Credit: Velogazette

I told the guys that I just needed to get to the base and would really love them forever I they just gave their best. They had great sportsmanship and suffered along with me. That Jersey didn’t come easy I tell you but doing the lions share paid off! We got caught shortly after KOM but I had the widest smile on my face, a little race within a race has been won! Love this sport! Teammates came by to congratulate, among many other riders, and proceeded to protect me and close gaps so I could finish with the pack and not lose too much time from the top 10 GC. Great team work pays off again.

Chris and Lucas controlling the front while I’m away. Credit: Velogazette

Tomorrow is the last stage with a 75km technical hilly crit downtown Quebec City! It will be a tough one I think, survival of the fittest kindda day! Stay tuned!