The Friday-evening criterium had no appreciable effect on the overall standings at the Tour de Beauce, though Navigators racked up its third consecutive stage victory, with Vassili Davidenko easily coming by Evan Elken (Jittery Joe's-Kalahari) at the line. Yellow jersey holder Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) finished safely in the peloton, 17 seconds behind the breakaway of 11 riders, including Davidenko.

For the first time in the race, it did not rain during the stage, to the relief of the top contenders. Attacks began immediately, with Team Canada being very aggressive - particularly mountain-bike pro Max Plaxton. According to team manager Kris Westwood, "We wanted to create as many opportunities for ourselves as possible, without putting Svein's jersey at risk."

Plaxton featured in nearly every move that occurred, and was usually at the front. However, Symmetrics and Navigators were keeping a close eye on things, and it wasn't until 17 laps to go (of 40) that a break finally stuck. It included Davidenko, his teammate Mark Walters, Dom Perras and Plaxton from Team Canada, Raphael Tremblay and Jean-Sebastien Maheu (both VW-Trek), Mike Sayers and Mike Jones (both Health Net-Maxxis), Glen Alan Chadwick (Cyclingnews.com) and espoir jersey holder Brandon Cricton (Italpasta-Transport Belmire CC). Walters was the highest placed on GC, but still 1:46 back, and Crichton was there to watch Maheu for the best-young-rider competition.

The group never seemed to develop any cohesion, and the gap fluctuated from seven to 15 seconds for six or seven laps, before Walters went to the front and pulled for four laps. The gap grew to over 25 seconds at that point, and Symmetrics seemed to be struggling, with all their riders at the front, before starting to pull it back in the final three laps.

"It was very disorganized,” said Davidenko. "Some riders would work hard and pull for a lap or two, and then stop working, it was frustrating. It was Mark that made it work, he did all the work for four, five laps. That was what kept us away."

In the final lap, Elken attacked with 600 meters to go, out of a corner into a descent, and Davidenko hopped on his wheel before coming by in the final 150 meters to take the win.

Tuft admitted afterwards that his team had a bit of trouble for a few laps. "It was hard out there, we were working the whole race. It started to get away from us there for a bit, but we were able to bring it back under control at the end."

On Saturday the Tour de Beauce moves to Quebec City for a difficult circuit race on the old course used in the 1999 TransCanada Tour.

Race notes
Christian Meier went down fairly hard halfway through the stage, in the last corner, after coming out of the descent a little too fast. He went into the pit for a free lap, and finished with the field.

Symmetrics were "warned" by officials at the time trial about the curved earpieces on their Rudy Project helmets - apparently they were deemed to provide an aerodynamic advantage (despite the fact that the helmet has been used by many teams around the world).