Philip Deignan in striking distance of yellow after TT stage in Canada; more climbing ahead

Ireland's Philip Deignan riding with the US-based Pro Continental Unitedhealthcare team on his way to 4th on the stage 4 TT at the Tour de Beauce yesterday, Friday. He's within striking distance of yellow ahead of Saturday's lumpy circuit stage.

Philip Deignan has done no harm to his chances of a podium finish, or even an outright win, at the UCI 2.2-ranked Tour de Beauce in Canada with 4th place in the time trial yesterday, Friday, nudging him up in the overall standings.

While the Unitedhealthcare man's move on general classification in terms of places gained was modest - moving up just one spot from 6th to 5th - the time he gained on some of his rivals was more significant.

Heading into yesterday's fourth of six stages, he trailed leader Francisco Mancebo Perez (5 Hour Energy) by 41 seconds. But after the 20km lumpy TT he has cut that deficit to just 21 seconds, to move himself to within realistic striking distance of the Spaniard with just two stages to go.

Mancebo won the final stage of the Tour of the Gila (2.2) in New Mexico last month, though Deignan took the outright win and the climbers' classification. Just after that race, they were both in the field in the Tour of California (UCI 2.HC), where Mancebo took 7th overall and Deignan was 9th.

Both are pretty evenly matched and if Deignan is going to take the yellow jersey or climb onto the podium over the others head of him - Matthew Cooke (Century Road), Nathan Brown (Bontrager Cycling) and his own team mate Benjamin Day - then today's fifth and penultimate stage is the day he has to do it.

Today's leg is based on a lap in the centre of Québec City which the riders will have to negotiate 12 times and features a 10 per cent climb.

Philip Lavery (H&R Block) was 37th in yesterday's TT and is now 31st overall while Anthony Walsh (Astellas Oncology) was 64th in the test and is now 73rd overall.