Rally UHC Cycling’s Kyle Murphy flew up the Mont Megantic summit finish to place third at the Tour de Beauce on Thursday. Ty Magner, winner of stage 1 and GC leader at the start of the day, finished an impressive 10th place, 17 seconds down on teammate Pier André Coté in ninth.
Magner now sits third in the general classification, with Murphy in sixth and Pier-André Coté in 10th.
“All day it was full gas attacks,” said Murphy. “With such a hard stage and no team able to control, you had to cover everything. When we hit Megantic it came down to whoever had the best legs.”
The 169 km Lac-Mégantic stage was a key day for the GC hopefuls at the Tour de Beauce. Aggressive racing defined the rain-soaked day, with the peloton splitting and regrouping multiple times before arriving at the base of the final climb.
With 10 kilometers remaining, teammates Nigel Ellsay and Evan Huffman launched off the front of the dwindling peloton in a bid for top stage honors. Behind, Murphy followed the other GC favorites as the Rally UHC Cycling duo was reeled in and was the first to respond when defending champion James Piccoli (Team Canada) attacked.
“The entire team rode really great,” said Murphy. “It never felt like we were in a bad spot on the road and I was taken care of. I hit the final climb with no excuses and I’m happy with third.”
Magner, who started the stage in the race leader’s yellow jersey, credited his teammates for helping him stay in the overall GC battle.
“I felt super good all day, and the team never missed a beat in all the key splits,” said Magner. “I’ve done Beauce a few times, but this was my first time being in the position to race up Megantic, and I’m happy with how I rode.”
Next up at the Tour de Beauce is a two-part race day that could shake up the battle for the overall. Friday’s stage 3a is a 19.4 km time trial in Saint-Prosper, followed by stage 3b, a 77 km road stage from Saint-Georges to Notre-Dame-des-Pins.
Stage 2 results
1 James Piccoli (Can) Canada 4:15:00
2 Keegan Swirbul (USA) Floyd’s Pro Cycling 0:00:09
3 Kyle Murphy (USA) Rally UHC Cycling 0:00:23
4 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Floyd’s Pro Cycling 0:00:29
5 Adam Roberge (Can) Canada 0:00:32
6 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Floyd’s Pro Cycling 0:00:50
7 Ben Katerberg (Can) Development Team Sunweb 0:01:01
8 Matthew Zimmer (USA) VeloSelect 0:01:12
9 Pier André Coté (Can) Rally UHC Cycling 0:01:13
10 Tyler Magner (USA) Rally UHC Cycling 0:01:30
GC following stage 2
1 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Floyd’s pro Cycling 8:30:58
2 James Piccoli (Can) Canada 0:00:33
3 Tyler Magner (USA) Rally UHC Cycling 0:00:36
4 Keegan Swirbul (USA) Floyd’s pro Cycling 0:00:42
5 Brendan Rhim (USA) Arapahoe | Hincapie Powered by Bmc 0:00:47
6 Kyle Murphy (USA) Rally UHC Cycling 0:00:56
7 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Floyd’s pro Cycling 0:01:02
8 Adam Roberge (Can) Canada 0:01:05
9 Ben Katerberg (Can) Development Team Sunweb 0:01:34
10 Pier André Coté (Can) Rally UHC Cycling 0:01:44
