Stage 2

Granby 104km

Race Writeup

The story of Stage 2 of the Tour of Montreal was the rain......

The race covered 11 laps of a course based on Granby, a town about 70km or so from Montreal. A thunderstorm which had been hanging over the city followed the race caravan down the highway later in the afternoon. Although the race started under reasonable conditions, the threat of rain was always present. Then, on the third lap of the race, the rain started and the thunderstorm moved in. The wettest laps of the race followed. Riders negotiated flash-flooded roads and the rain from the thunderstorm which was cold and stung bare legs, arms and faces.

Remarkably, there were very few crashes on the 4 or so laps which followed when the rain persisted. A touch of wheels and a puncture brought down a handful of riders, but all rejoined the chase. 

The evening dried up a little as the riders neared the closing laps. However, the 5:30pm start time meant that it was nearing 8:30pm as the riders sprinted for the line and the light was definitely failing. 

The bunch sprint was won by Regina Schleicher (Nürnberger) from Oenone Wood (T-Mobile) and Giorgia Bronzini (SAFI) in a repeat of the Stage 1 result.

The presentation ceremonies were held in the late dusk. Whilst waiting for proceedings to begin, the riders due for the podium were given blankets to wrap around themselves to keep them warm - this was a night of fierce weather.

Race lead stays with Schleicher, the sprints jersey is still Wood's and the points competition is led by Schleicher. In line with race etiquette, Giorgia Bronzini will wear the jersey - second place in the competition is held by Wood who will start in green. Trixi Worrack (Nürnberger) holds the lead in the mountains competition.

Back to Top

Results - Top 10 

To follow

Back to Top

General Classification Top 10

To follow

Back to Top

Photos   Click on any image to enlarge >>

 

Back to Top

Want to contact WomensCycling.net? 

The WomensCycling.net email address is

 

To contact the webmaster, the address is :

Type this address into the "To" line of a new email message in your email programme.

The WomensCycling.net email address is displayed as a graphic in order to reduce the amount of 'spam' email received from programmes which 'crawl' the internet for sites with addresses displayed in text and then overwhelm that address with junk, or even forge the address in junk messages that they generate and send to others. Sorry for any inconvenience this approach causes you.

 

Back to top