As expected, the 27km time trial has rearranged the general classification at the Tour de Beauce. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) takes over the yellow jersey from Dominique Rollin (Equipe Quebec), but he is just five seconds in front of Nathan O'Neill (Navigators), who crushed the competition in the stage.

O’Neill finished 52 seconds in front of runner-up Tuft, with his teammate Jeff Louder giving Navigators third place on the stage and in the overall rankings.

The riders woke up to heavy rain, but by the time the first rider rolled down the ramp, it had backed off to drizzle, and halfway through the field the rain stopped completely. Everyone still had to contend with strong wind, including a headwind on the finishing stretch up a 1.5km climb. The T-shaped course (with the start/finish at the base of the T) had very little in the way of flat sections, it was either uphill, downhill or false flat.

Bruno Langlois (Jittery Joe's-Kalahari) set the early fast time, and was the only rider in the first 20 starters to go under 40 minutes at 39:48. Alexandre Nadeau (Equipe Quebec) and Oleg Grichkine (Navigators) also managed to squeak under the 40-minute bar, but Langlois was still fastest with half the field through.

Chris Isaac (ItalPasta-Transport Belmire CC) lowered the time by 22 seconds, then Justin England (Health Net-Maxxis) managed a further six seconds, only to be immediately superseded by Cesar Grajales (Navigators). It took stage-1 winner Martin Gilbert (VW-Trek) to lower the bar below 39 minutes (38:51), but shortly afterwards Canadian espoir time trial champion Christian Meier (Symmetrics) brought in the first really serious time - 37:27.

Meier's time would hold up until Thursday's stage winner, Irish national road champion David O'Loughlin (Navigators,) took eight seconds off, but the O'Neill express was right behind, taking a staggering 1:55 out of O'Loughlin.

"It was a tough course, but I knew I could do well on it," said O'Neill. "I was pretty confident (of winning the stage), the only question was whether I could take enough time for the jersey. I had a little bit of trouble with my gears out there at one point, and had to back off, but it's hard to say if that would have made any difference. But this way it is better - they (Symmetrics) have to defend for the next three stages. I think I'll be sleeping better than him (Tuft) tonight!"

Tuft was fifth from last to start, and rode a steady, consistent ride, with the help of some borrowed technology from a teammate.

"Pinner (Andrew Pinfold) has been using an SRM, and we put it on my bike. I rode it (the stage) on wattage, and just tried to keep a steady output for the entire way. It was a hard race out there today. The wind, especially the headwind on the way back to the finish, meant you couldn't back off at all. All you could do was try and maintain your pace and be consistent. By the end I was lightheaded from the effort."

Louder was the next rider after Tuft, but he was nearly 30 seconds slower, and the remaining three riders - Dawid Krupa (Paged-MBK-Scout), Mark Walters (Navigators) and Rollin - were well off the pace.

While Tuft and his Symmetrics team were happy to be awarded their first-ever UCI leader's jersey, Tuft also expressed concerns about having to defend the jersey.

"It's great to win the jersey, don't get me wrong! But this is going to be hard, especially with two hard stages still left (plus the Friday-night criterium). We'll just have to be extra alert."

Race notes
Meier's strong ride moves him closer to espoir leader Brandon Crichton (ItalPasta-Transport Belmire CC), who finished 18th on the stage, but he is still 2:04 back.