Ben Day convincingly won today’s Stage 4 Time Trial with 1.01 separating him from second place and in the process taking both the Yellow jersey (overall leader) and White jersey (points classification).
Ben’s win today adds to his growing list of ITT wins in 2010 that started in February at the Calville Bay Classic and have since included wins in the race of Truth at; San Dimas, Redlands and Gatineau.
Fly V Australia teammate Darren Rolfe rode into 3rd on today’s ITT stage and 2nd overall at 46 seconds from the race lead. Darren said, “I have been feeling good this week and during the two previous stages I was in long breakaways but seem to have recovered well, to have a good TT and be second behind Ben with two stages to go gives us some great options.”
Ben added, “We also have Jai Crawford inside the first 10 at seventh I think at around 1.30 secs, Jai is coming back from a short competition break and seems to be getting stronger by the day. Having married Isabelle here in Quebec in January this year, it is like being home for me. I am sure that this will give me added motivation to keep the jersey until the end of the Tour.”
As expected the 20-kilometer TT proved decisive with a reshuffle of the contenders for the 2010 Tour de Beauce title. Over night leader Marc de Maar (UHC) lost 1.57 in the stage and now sits in 4th position 1.18 seconds from the race lead.
With three in the first 10 positions Team Fly V Australia also have taken the lead in the Team’s classification.
Two tough circuit races are ahead in stages 5 and 6 and to retain the race lead Ben and his Fly V Australia teammates will need to be attentive.
Overall general classification heading into Stage 5;
1 Benjamin Day (Aus) Fly V Australia 12:27:19
2 Darren Rolfe (Aus) Fly V Australia 0:00:46
3 Valeriy Kobzarenko (Ukr) Team Type 1 0:01:02
4 Marc De Maar (Ned) Unitedhealthcare p/b Maxxis 0:01:18
5 Morgan Schmitt (USA) Unitedhealthcare p/b Maxxis
6 François Parisien (Can) Spidertech p/b Planet Energy 0:01:34
7 Jai Crawford (Aus) Fly V Australia 0:01:36
8 Derrick St-John (Can) Garneau Club Chaussures
9 David Boily (Can) Spidertech p/b Planet Energy 0:01:49
10 Ryan Roth (Can) Spidertech p/b Planet Energy 0:01:52