John Lieswyn (7UP-Maxxis) survived a scare in the final 1500 meters of stage 2 at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce to retain the overall leader's jersey, while Oleg Grishkine (Navigators) took the stage win ahead of local favorite Charles Dionne (Canadian National).

The 169km stage through the rolling countryside south of Québec City unfolded as expected, with a break of five riders going clear 6km into the race. Jindrich Vana (Ed's System-ZVVZ) and Trent Wilson (Flanders-Iteamnova.com) started the break, and were quickly joined by Cam Evans (Canadian National), Jeff Hansen (Atlas Cold Storage-Italpasta) and Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators).

The group worked steadily together under a hot sun, establishing a maximum lead of just over five minutes by the halfway point. Behind, 7UP-Maxxis was just riding tempo, although Lieswyn admitted that he may have worked his team a little harder than necessary to keep a leash on the leaders.

"We had no concerns, and I think that the guys went a little too hard - we could have given them seven minutes, since they came back so quickly at the end." The break began to falter in the final 40km, and as the riders entered the final 8.5km finishing circuit for three laps, the lead was down to 1:22.

Gord Fraser's Health Net squad had come to the front to help 7UP - and set up their sprinter - and they closed on the leaders quickly. All but Swindlehurst were gobbled up halfway through the first of the laps, with the Navigators rider holding on for another lap before he, too, was absorbed.

At this point, all Lieswyn had to do to keep his overall lead was finish in the pack - however, a crash 1.5km out split the field, and the yellow jersey found himself caught on the wrong side of the accident.

"I was gapped a bit, and had to really push it to get back on," Lieswyn said.

Not so lucky was Eric Wohlberg (Canadian National), fourth overall. He came to a stop, and then couldn't get back on before the finish. Luckily for him and the rest of the peloton, the officials decided to credit them with the same time as the winner.

In the finish it was a straight drag race between Grishkine and Dionne, with the Russian leading all the way to the line. Dionne admitted to some pressure, but felt that he had ridden the best race he could.

"It was very fast at the finish," he said. "I was following Grishkine and gave it everything that I had in the last 1200 meters, but I could not pass him. For sure there was pressure on me, with all my family and the local media watching, and I wanted to put on a good show, so I am very pleased to have had a good finish."

Grishkine wasn't even sure that he was the designated rider for Navigators, since the team also had Vassili Davidenko on tap. But Davidenko went down in the crash, and Grishkine became the Navigators’ man, giving the team a win to go with yesterday's second by Chris Baldwin.

Beauce continues on Thursday with a hard, hilly 151km stage near Lac Etchemin. Henk Vogels won this stage in a two-rider breakaway with Svein Tuft in 2001, and took the overall lead in the race, eventually winning Beauce.