Tour de Beauce - stage 3. The stage that inspires the most oohs and ahhs of fear in la Beauce is without a doubt Mont Megantic. Wether or not this beast of a mountain deserves its rep in recent years though is in doubt. Biking has changed a lot since the 90s… and more and more it seems the strong TT men can climb with the waife like climbers.

And that is what happened today. Our 'toppie' Svein rode an amazing climb to come in 7th, only dropping a handful of seconds to Colex, Martinez, Chadwick and Kabzorenko. We really don't know how Martinez will go in the TT. But now this race looks more like a battle amongst the TT riders with Kabzo, Chaddy and Svein as the favorites to take this tour. We're not counting out Martinez. Honestly, and with all due respect, we think the Tecos guys aren't in the hunt now.

But what does it take to ride a guy no one thinks is a climber to a top finish on the hardest climb in Canadian–hell maybe North American– racing? Teamwork. Svein didn't have to touch the wind today, his every need was taken care of. When the wind blew, he was protected. When the tempo picked up he was brought to the front. When the climb started he was put in position. And one guy on our team does that job day in, day out, race after race better than anyone. Jacob Erker, the most under-rated rider in Canada.

The guy can climb, sprint and ride a TT when he has too. He can read a race better than anyone. He has insane consistency, an even temperament - he never panics - and an absolutely selfless way of riding. The team comes first for Jake. When there's a cruddy job to do at the toughest moments Jake's always the guy on the radio saying "I'll do it". Today every time Svein turned around Jake was right there. At the finish, Svein did exactly what he had to do–limit the losses to inside a minute to the climbers–and Jake? Well he rolls in next best guy on the team, after hauling his ass around the bunch all day doing the dirty work. Amazing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Beauce, Jacob Erker, Svein Tuft, Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team, The Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.