Wilmar Paredes (Medellin-EPM) claimed the overall victory in the Tour de Beauce, a UCI 2.2-ranked stage race in Québec, Canada.
The Colombian team landed two of the final podium spots with 2025 Tour de Beauce winner Diego Camargo in second at 1:02, and Tim McBirney (Project Echelon) in third, 1:10 behind Paredes, and won three of the five stages.
The 30-year-old Paredes began his victorious campaign by taking out two of the three time bonus sprints on the opening stage. Combined with the bonus for his second place in the bunch sprint, Paredes claimed the first yellow jersey by two seconds over stage winner Marshall Erwood (Whoosh-NZ Cycling Project).
While Paredes ceded the race lead on the second stage to Briton Adam Lewis (APS), who was second from the breakaway behind Medellin-EPM’s Robigzon Oyola, he reclaimed the race lead on stage 3, finishing second to Camargo from the breakaway.
Paredes successfully defended his lead on stage 4 before cementing the overall victory with a sprint victory on the final stage.
The Tour de Beauce gave Paredes his ninth win of 2026 and his second UCI stage race victory after the Volta de São Paulo last month.
Stage 1
New Zealand’s Marshall Erwood opened the Tour de Beauce with the stage victory in Saint-Côme-Linière at the end of a 190.1 kilometre stage.
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The Whoosh-NZ Cycling Project rider out-sprinted Paredes and Leo Roy (Bluebird Entreposage) from a much-reduced peloton at the end of the hilly stage.
However, Erwood was denied the yellow jersey of race leader because Paredes claimed two three-second time bonuses early in the stage. Combined with a six-second bonus as runner-up at the finish, Paredes gained 12 seconds to Erwood’s 10, and moved into the yellow jersey by two seconds.
Stage 2
The breakaway claimed the second stage of the Tour de Beauce, a 169.2km circuit around Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourn.
While a ten-rider breakaway was chased down with 40km to go, three riders escaped in the final 10km and held on to fight for the stage victory.
The win went to Medellin-EPM’s Robigzon Oyola ahead of Adam Lewis (APS). Killian O’Brien (Skyline) finished a distant third.
Lewis donned the yellow jersey with 13 seconds over Paredes, while Erwood was third at 18 seconds.
Stage 3
Defending Tour de Beauce champion Diego Camargo won the race’s queen stage to Mont-Mégantic for the second year in a row, escaping with teammate Paredes, wearing the white points jersey, on the final climb of the 168.9 km stage.
The pair chased down McBirney, who had been off the front of the race for 125 kilometres and had a three-minute solo lead at the foot of the ascent.
When the two Medellin-EPM riders had McBirney in sight at the kilometre to go banner and broke the American’s heart by sweeping past just before the line.
Camargo celebrated his win just ahead of Paredes, with McBirney finishing five seconds later.
Paredes moved back into the race lead with 38 seconds over Camargo, with Kent Ross (Cascadia-Expeditors) moving into third ahead of Lewis.
Stage 4
The locals got to enjoy some time in the spotlight in the stage 4 individual time trial, a 7.9km run along the St. Lawrence River in Québec City.
Jacob Roy (Les Regis Groupe-Auto Ami) won the stage by two seconds over Québec’s Joel Plamondon, with Erwood rounding out the stage podium fractions of a second behind in third.
“Winning is a big surprise! It was a perfect race. I race a time trial of exactly the same distance every Wednesday, and I learned quite quickly how to manage the effort. I always believed I could do it, and I succeeded,” Roy said.
Paredes limited his losses in fifth at three seconds and extended his GC lead over Camargo to 47 seconds. McBirney held onto third at 55 seconds after finishing sixth on the day.
Stage 5
Paredes sealed his overall victory with Medellin-EPM’s third stage win, deftly handling the 13 laps of the 6.3km technical city circuit in Saint-Georges before sprinting to the line ahead of Jerome Gauthier (Project Echelon) and Boris van der Voort (Wielerploeg Groot Amsterdam).
While there was no change in the overall standings, Camargo lost a handful of seconds to finish 1:02 down, with McBirney third at 1:10.