Montreal’s Piccoli captures 33rd Tour de Beauce

First Canadian to win title since 2008

Montrealer James Piccoli overcame a gap of 70 seconds on the final stage through the streets of StGeorges Sunday to win the 33rd Tour de Beauce.

Piccoli won the criterium Saturday in Quebec City to climb into eighth place in the general classification. He made a breakaway on the final lap to finish fourth in the stage and his time was good enough to grab the general classification with an 11-second edge over Britain’s Daniel Whitehouse. American Sergey Tsvetkov, the leader going into the final stage, was third overall.

Piccoli, a 26-year-old racing for Team Canada, is the first Canadian to win the title since Svein Tuft in 2008. The last Quebec champion was Jacques Landry in 1994. The win was Piccoli’s second win in a UCI stage race. He won the Tour of Southland last year in New Zealand.

“I can’t believe it! I never thought about it during the stage. I knew it was close to two laps from the end. My teammate Jordan Cheyne did an amazing job up front. It’s an honour,” Piccoli said.

Racing in an overwhelming heat, the final stage was won by Pier-André Côté of Silber Pro Cycling, who scored his second win in the five-stage event.

“I am really happy,” Côté said. “After my first win on Wednesday, I thought the rest was icing on the cake!”

Whitehouse finished second in the stage, followed by Bruno Langlois, 39, who represented Team Quebec.

Quebecer Adam Roberge of Silber Pro Cycling was second overall at the start of the last stage, but had problems at the end of the race. He finished 11th in the standings. He also handed the red jersey as best young rider to American Thomas Revard of Hagens Berman Axeon.

Benjamin Perry, a Team Canada rider from St. Catharines, Ont., won the polka-dot jersey as king of the mountain.

Team Canada took the term honours.