Stage two at the Tour de Beauce saw a change in the lead, with Stefan Parinussa of the German Sparkasse team able to get into the break for a second straight day while yellow-jersey holder Valeriy Kobzarenko (Navigators) missed it and lost two minutes.

The 180km circuit, which started and finished in the town of St. Joseph, is the longest stage of the race, with three categorized climbs and nowhere to rest. Navigators went into the stage expecting the race to break up, but planning to get Kobzarenko into any important moves.

Unfortunately for them, miscommunication and slow race updates meant that they missed the critical break on the first KoM, and Parinussa – who didn't – rode himself into the yellow jersey.

"We figured it would be aggressive, which was fine because we didn't want to try and ride tempo for five days," explained team director Ed Beamon.

"Unfortunately for us, there was some miscommunication at the top of the climb, when we thought it would let up a bit. It didn't and we didn't have Valeriy in there."

Added to that was a slow relay of race numbers over race radio for the break of 18 that had gone up the road. "By the time we realized the German (Parinussa) and the Colombian on Tecos (John Fredy Parra Calada, Tecos Trek Vh) were there it was too late."

In the break were David O'Loughlin and Ciaran Power (Navigators); Parinussa; Danny Pate (TIAA-CREF); Peter McDonald (FRF Courier); Koki Simbo (Asian); Christian Meier and Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics); Dustin MacBurnie and Greg Reain (Canadian National); Parra Calada and Hector Rangel Zimarron (Tecos); Tom Zirbel and Glen Mitchell (Priority Health); Cameron Hughes (Italpasta); Kevin Miller (Fioridifrutta); and Yovanny Torres Castro (Colombia es Pasion).

The gap stretched to as much as seven minutes, but work by Chadwick and Walters of Navigators brought down below two minutes for the final finishing circuit in St. Joseph. Seven riders had broken clear of the rest on the final KoM before the circuit - Pate, Parinussa, Calada, O'Loughlin, Power, Hughes and Zirbel. Zirbel was dropped by the other six, who rode into the finish together, with Calada taking the stage ahead of Hughes and Power. The remains of the break had been caught by the front of the peloton, which was led in by Sergey Lagutin and Kobzarenko at just over two minutes.

Race notes
Symmetrics lost Marsh Cooper, who didn't start Wednesday's stage. Cooper had a reoccurrence of previous knee problems, and the team didn't want to aggravate the injury before national’s (in three weeks).

Thursday is the Mont Megantic stage, which will likely upset the GC again. The stage finishes at the observatory at over 1100 meters, with the last five kilometers averaging over 12 percent. Navigators is counting on Cesar Grajales, but Beamon points out that the Colombian, Calada, "should be able to go up pretty fast, and don't count out either Valeriy or Sergey."