McCabe notches third place on opening stage
Beauce, CANADA – UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling men’s team showed an impressive display of resiliency last week at the Tour de Beauce. The six-day stage race, the oldest in North America, tested the tenacity of the injury-plagued team, who remained aggressive each day while on the hunt for stage results.
Chris Jones was the team’s best placed finisher in 17th place. Andzs Flaksis won the overall title for (Holowesko/Citadel Racing).
On the opening stage, a group of 25 riders escaped including UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling’s Tanner Putt and Travis McCabe. The break established a gap of more than 20 minutes, which essentially ended any hopes for GC contenders who were caught unaware.
“Tanner suffered a lot of his injuries (hurt shoulder from a crash), but nevertheless he attacked a few times in the leading group,” Team Director Hendrik Redant said. “Although when the final break occurred with about 15 km to go, we were not capable to put Tanner or McCabe in this break of three riders.
Travis McCabe won the bunch gallop for third place, earning in the white points jersey after 185 km in windy circumstances on a demanding parcours. Émile Jean of Silber Pro Cycling won on the day.
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling continued to fight through the week of racing, but results were elusive for the team in blue.
On the final day, the team covered many moves in an attempt to find themselves in the winning move. Gavin Mannion and Chris Jones was initially successful in getting into the right moves, but couldn’t hold the tempo on the demanding final circuits.
“We knew the race was going to be very hard as the “general” was still not decided. After about 35 km we got a 26 men break with all our guys in there,” Redant said. “A break of two riders, Rob Britton and Gavin Mannion, took off. They quickly got a minute advantage, but with still 40 km to go, Gavin was dropped from Britton, who went on to win the stage.”
The team will have time to press reset before they head to the U.S. road and time trial national championships in Knoxville, Tenn., June 24-26.
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