John Lieswyn and his 7UP-Maxxis squad successfully defended the yellow jersey in the final stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, Lubor Tesar (Ed's Systeme-ZVVZ) just holding off Charles Dionne (Canadian National) to take the final stage victory.

Lieswyn had held the jersey from stage one, and started the final stage47 seconds in front of Chris Baldwin (Navigators). Tomas Konecny (Ed'sSystem-ZVVZ) and Danny Pate (Prime Alliance) were also less than a minute behind, so 7 Up could not afford to rest, despite having spent a week at the front of the peloton.

The final stage of Beauce is no pushover, with the riders completing 14 laps of a tough 11 kilometer circuit (down from 15 after the start was delayed for 30 minutes) that featured a 2.5km climb every lap.

The action started immediately, with seven riders breaking clear on the first lap - Cory Lange (Canadian National), polka dot jersey holder Irving Aguilar and his Tecos-Mercurio teammate Joel Alamillo, LubosKejval (Ed's System-ZVVZ), Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) - who has been in almost every long break of the week - Bert Scheirlinckx (Flanders-Iteamnova.com) and Ryan Roth (Jet Fuel). Scheirlinckx was best placed on GC, in 10th at 3:42.

The gap never went over 3 minutes, but 7UP was vigilant, with the surprising assistance of Health Net. No one was talking, but it appeared that an agreement was in place, especially when Gord Fraser took strong pulls at the front and dropped out with less than 50 kilometers remaining.

As the race moved into the final four laps the front group was shuffled, with Tesar moving up to join Swindlehurst, Lange and Scheirlinkx. Swindlehurst attacked solo, but at the same time, Charles Dionne, Svein Tuft (Prime Alliance) and Jeff Louder (Navigators) were making their way up to the front.

After the chasers made contact, Swindlehurst was dropped, leaving Dionne, Tesar, Louder and Tuft in front. The peloton was beginning to close in as the race entered the final two laps, and Dionne took the initiative, shouldering the lion's share of the work. At the line, the gap was virtually eliminated (the peloton was given the same time as the leaders), with Tesar holding off Dionne and Louder to take the stage.

"Today I felt like I had a big engine in the break - at least a V-12" said Dionne "The other riders were not working, and so I had to work to make sure that we were not caught. I still felt confident for the sprint, but Tesar was just too strong today."

Race Notes
- Lieswyn almost didn't come to Beauce. "From February I have wanted to do Beauce, but there was no rest between Philly and Minnesota, so I wasn't too sure about coming to Beauce. If I had decided not to, I would have missed a big win for the team."- 81 riders started the final stage, 55 finished, with one outside the time limit.