Cronshaw hits jackpot with stage win in Tour de Beauce

Rapha-Condor's Mathew Cronshaw is just 20 years old, but inexperience was defintiely not an issue in his recent stage win of the Tour de Beauce in Canada.

The Briton was the fastest of a breakaway of four at the end of a 60 kilometre criterium - and that was despite the efforts of Fly-V duo Dionne Charles and Bernard Sulzberger, as well as Garmin under-23 rider Raymond Kreder.

"I was kind of hoping something would work out because I'd got through three tough, hilly stages ok and I was feeling good," Cronshaw told Cycling Weekly before starting the final stage of the category 2.2 race.

"But John [Herety] had said we needed two guys in any break of four or more and me and Kristian [House] got in a move of eight early on. Then when it went down to four" - with about 40 kilometres to go - "I was on the right side of the move."

Cronshaw said he had to be a "bit cautious" because there were two Fly-V riders in the move. But he hung back and bided his time.

"Finally, they tried to lead out the sprint and I ended up having the perfect wheel to follow. I'm still over the moon I won."

Whilst House missed out on the final move, he'll very soon have an opportunity to make up for it in a criterium -but on more familiar ground.

The Rapha-Condor rider will get in with the rest of the team from Canada to the UK on Tuesday morning and is then driving straight up to Stoke-on-Trent for the next round of the Tour Series that evening. Well, it's one way of curing jetlag.

Full report in this week's edition of Cycling Weekly magazine