Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) solidified his lead at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce after finishing second behind Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC) on the difficult climb up Mont Megantic. Scott Moninger (Health Net) managed a strong performance to finish third, and take over third in the general classification.

The 5km climb to the Observatory at 1100 meters above sea level has become legendary at Beauce. Averaging 10 percent, with sections as steep as 16 percent in the final 2km, it usually reduces the contenders for the overall title to a handful. This year was no exception, with only Romanik (at 16 seconds), Moninger (32 seconds), and Colavita-Bolla's Nathan O'Neill (57 seconds), having a chance of dethroning Brozyna now.

The 152km stage begins in Saint-Georges, and the riders face two Cat. 2 climbs before Megantic, but nothing is considered important except the final Cat. 1 climb. In the past, riders have attempted to break away early and start the climb with a enough of a cushion to win, or at least avoid finishing well back. This year it was former Beauce stage winner Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), who made the first move, taking four other riders with him - Bruno Langlois (VW-Trek), Vassili Davidenko (Navigators), Tyler Wren (Colavita-Bolla), and Linus Gerdemann (Winfix Arnolds).

Tuft had an early go with a small group, only to be caught at the base of Megantic

Photo: Rob Jones

"I figured it was worth a shot." explained Tuft. "With the right group of people we could get to the base of the climb with a bit of a buffer and maybe hang in for a reasonable result. But there was something going on between the German (Gerdemann) and Wren. The German felt that Wren wasn't doing enough work and was all over him, trying to drop him, and even crash him. Instead they both were gone, then the three of us started to really work."

The trio managed to gain more than five minutes on the Action ATI-led peloton by the 100km mark, but it wasn't enough, and the peloton began to slowly reel them in, eventually catching them at the base of the climb. From there it became a race of attrition, with the two Polish teams (Action ATI and Hoop CCC) setting a high tempo that quickly burned off all but a hard core of 20 or so riders. Brozyna went to the front and set an even higher pace, slashing that group in half. Among those remaining were Moninger, O'Neill, Romanik, Maxim Iglinskiy (Capec), and Canadian national champion Dominique Perras (Team Canada).

The attacks then began in earnest, first by Iglinskiy, and then Brozyna himself. This took the leaders down to four - Brozyna, Romanik, Moninger and Iglinskiy. Iglinskiy was shed in the last 1500 meters, and then the two Polish riders went to work on Moninger, dropping him in the final 500 meters; then Romanik surged ahead of Brozyna in the final 100 meters for the win.

"Those Polish guys were working together, tag-teaming me,” said Moninger. "I came back up to them a couple of times, but I was having trouble with the surges, the fast-slow stuff. I tried to ride third wheel, but they weren't happy about it. When you have two strong teams combining forces, they are able to control the race. We just have to pick up the scraps we can."

Romanik confirmed that he and Brozyna had discussed tactics before the start. "I knew that that he (Brozyna) was going to attack, this was the tactic we talked about. There are a lot of strong time trialists here, so we both wanted to get more time before the time trial tomorrow. Then, at the end, Brozyna attacked, and I countered to win."

Saturday, the riders face a double stage day, with a time trial in the morning and a criterium in the evening.