After a day like Friday, when everything was almost perfect for Navigators at the Tour de Beauce, today's race saw two members of the team involved in a potentially serious accident with a car that wandered onto the course.

Mark Walters and Glen Chadwick were at the front of the peloton setting tempo on the third lap to keep a six rider breakaway in check, when a car ignored traffic cones and swerved out beside them. Chadwick managed to avoid going down, but Walters was sandwiched between Chadwick and the car and had nowhere to go. The Blue Jersey holder (Top Canadian) went down, bruising his tailbone.

Although Walters was able to complete the shortened race when it was restarted, he could not stay with the front group, and lost his jersey to Christian Meier (Symmetrics). Russell Downing (DFL) won the shortened stage, but there were no changes to the top GC positions.

The break was sent off again...

Photo: Rob Jones

The ten-lap, 12.5 kilometer circuit race through Quebec City featured a steep climb on each lap, and strong headwinds on the upper portion of the course. The first two laps saw the field all together, but early in the third lap a group of eight riders managed to break free - Richard Faltus (Sparkasse), Ian McGreggor (TIAA-Cref), Tony Mann (FRF), Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), Andrew Randell (Symmetrics), Michael Ford (SouthAustralia.com), Eric Boily (Volkswagen Trek) and Jarley Hernandez (Colombia Es Pasion). The only rider of concern to Navigators was Hernandez, 4:32 back.

By the end of the lap the gap was 35 seconds, and the group was down to six - Randell and last night's criterium winner Faltus had been dropped. The rest of the group seemed to be working well together, and it appeared Navigators was happy to let the break dangle off the front. However, it was just before the descent that the car came onto the course, leading to the race stoppage.

"Glen and I were at the front, setting tempo" explained Walters. "We were happy to let the break get a minute or two. Then the car came out beside us and I was caught between Glen and the car. I guess I touched Glen's back wheel or something as I was getting squeezed and went down hard, hitting my tailbone."

The rest was delayed while riders discussed their concerns about the course with the organizers - particularly a section of the Grand Allee Boulevard where the racers headed in both directions, separated only by traffic cones, which the riders successfully campaigned to have removed.

"It was too narrow there" said second overall Danny Pate, "people were getting squeezed out into the cones and banging into each other. After they were removed it was much better."

The officials restarted the race for five laps, with the original break of six sent off 40 seconds in front of the field. The break worked steadily, taking the lead up to over a minute, but it began to drop in the final lap and a half, under pressure from attacks by the Mexican Tecos Trek Vh and Colombia es Pasion teams, which forced Navigators to chase.

"They must have been going hard behind us" commented Tuft, "because we were all working in front. It seemed pretty steady until right at the bottom of the final climb, when I turned around and saw the peloton for the first time."

Pate confirmed this: "There were a lot of guys attacking; it was pretty aggressive. Navigators did a good job, but sometimes they started to come apart - Tecos almost blew Navigators up at one point, with only (Cesar) Grajales up there with Lagutin and Kobzarenko. I was going to try and get away with anyone I could, but it just didn't happen."

The chase had splintered the field, and with two laps to go there were approximately 25 riders left in the front chase group, including all the top riders and jersey holders - with the exception of Walters.

"After we started again I didn't have it on the climb, so I couldn't stay with the front group when it split up. I didn't know who was ahead of me, but I just felt bad enough that it didn't really matter anymore."

Meier was there, and only 5:07 behind Walters, however, he hadn't thought about the Blue Jersey. "I wasn't thinking about the jersey at all, because I was pretty far down on the classification. But I made the split (in the field) and Mark didn't, so after the stage we just sat and watched the clock tick down. Obviously, it is good to have the jersey, but we definitely didn't want to benefit from Mark's misfortune."

Hernandez took the KoM points in the break group, enough to take the Climber's jersey from Sergey Lagutin (Navigators), leaving Navigator's the Yellow and Points (Lagutin) jerseys, losing the Climber and Blue jerseys overnight.

In the final climb, after the break was caught, Kobzarenko, Pate, Lagutin, Stefan Parinussa (Sparkasse) and various Colombian riders launched attacks, splintering the group over the steepest sections. As the remnants came back together on the top for the final run into the finish, Russell Downing launched a well timed attack with 400 meters to go, catching everyone by surprise and managing to hold on long enough to pip Lagutin and Peter Hatton (Jittery Joe's p/b Zero Gravity) at the line.

"Today was perfect, really" said Downing. "Pate attacked the Yellow, who countered and it broke things up. I rode within myself on the steep sections and then got back on over the top. It suits me to have 20-30 guys in the sprint - guys that can climb - because I can get over the climb and sprint as well. It was a downhill sprint, so I knew you had to get a gap, and once I had the momentum they weren't coming by me."

Race Notes
Sunday's final stage will keep the pressure on Navigators, who lost David O'Loughlin on stage 3 , and now look like they may have lost the services of Mark Walters. The stage is a circuit race through the host town of St Georges - an 11 kilometer circuit covered 12 times, with a 2.8 kilometer climb that averages out to between 9 and 10 percent.