From Santa Cruz to San Ramon, stage 6 of the Vuelta Kolbi was the longest stage. Flat for the first 130km the peloton would then attack the first category 1 climb of the race. Jean-Michel realized an amazing race finishing in fourth and comforting his lead on the Regularidad !

Race description:
174km - high mountain  - (2636m)

Race map:
Santa Cruz - San Ramon



How it unfold:
Not even 10km into the race, a big group of riders (26) got away. Team for the Planet had 2 riders in the move with Gavriel Epstein and Etienne Samson.

Jean-Michel: "When I see the way they were riding (JPS Giant - leader's team), I took a chance and attacked even tough the gap was already pointing at 1min30. I was joined by 2 riders Carlos Lopez from Mexico and Bryan Villalobos from Costa Rica. We rode very hard and only made junction to the group around the 55km mark. By then, the lead to the peloton was about 9min. I was happy to see Gavriel and Etienne in the break. With a "breakaway" that big, the cohesion was not perfect among the group and there was constant attacking until it settle down."

Around the 100km mark, the group had a serious lead of 12min over the field and Jean-Michel followed a Cuban and a Guatemalan who attacked. Jean-Michel: "We rode well together and started the climb with 1min30 on the chase group. Soon enough, the best climbers from the chase group joined and pass us as I stayed within my limits on the climb."

As the race situation settles, Jean-Michel was now in the second group on the road with 6 riders in front. The climb was 20km long with the last 10km at 6%. As his group climbed, they catched 3 of the riders in front who overestimated their capacity and his group was now fighting for 4th place.

Jean-Michel: "When we reached the top of the climb, 6km to the finish, my group was now down to 6 riders. Quickly after the descent as we hit the flat towards the finish line, Juan Carlos Rojas, the leader of the Vuelta came from nowhere. He managed to close down an enormous gap during the 20km climb as the last gap we heard before the climb was 12min! This was good coincidence for me as I let him do all the work which facilitate me taking the sprint for 4th and comforting my "regularidad" jersey. I now have 31points advantage on Jose Vega who won the stage. I was very happy with the way I raced both tatcitcally and phisically as this is one of the hardest day I've had in a bike race."


Results: full results - video report

Stage 6 - 174.17 km - avg speed - 37,25km/h
1- Jose Vega, JPS Giant, 4h 40m 34
2- Andres Alpizar, BCR Pizza Hut, + 1m 59
3- Bryan Vaillalobos, Agricenter, + 2m 22
4- Jean-Michel Lachance, 1% for the Planet, + 3m 52
41- Julien Gagné, 1% for the Planet, + 15m 33
50- Ryan Roth, 1% for the Planet, +16m 28
52- Gavriel Epstein, 1% for the Planet + 21m 11
58- Anton Varabei, 1% for the Planet, +22m 51
71- Étienne Samson, 1% for the Planet, + 42m 59

General classification
1- Juan Rojas, JPS Giant, 22h 29m 35 - avg speed - 41,4km/h
2- Jose Vega, JPS Giant, + 3m 44
3- Elias Vega, JPS Giant, + 4m 19
17- Jean-Michel Lachance, 1% for the Planet, + 14m 45
36- Julien Gagné, 1% for the Planet, + 25m 29
50- Ryan Roth, 1% for the Planet, + 32m 54
53- Anton Varabei, 1% for the Planet, + 37m 02
58- Gavriel Epstein, 1% for the Planet + 46m 28
70- Étienne Samson, 1% for the Planet, + 2h 00m 15

Regularidad
1 - Jean-Michel Lachance - For the Planet - 83pts
2 - Jose Vega - JPS Giant - 52pts
3 - Juan Rojas - JPS Giant - 49pts
4 - Evgeny Kovalev - RusVelo - 45pts
5 - Bryan Villalobos - Agricenter - 39pts
6 - Fabricio Quiros - BCR Pizza Hut - 38pts
7 - Henry Raab - Coopenae - 36pts
8 - Elias Vega - JPS Giant - 33pts
9 - Anton Varabei - For the Planet - 33 pts


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Photo credit: Ever Obabdo (photo 1-2-3-4)
Altimeteria and map: Garmin