24th Route du Sud - 2.3

France, June 17 - 20, 2000

1999 Results    Start list    Preview     Past Winners

The Stages

  • Stage 1a - June 17: Villeneuve-sur-Lot - Villeneuve-sur-Lot, 102.3 km
  • Stage 1b - June 17: Villeneuve-sur-Lot, ITT, 14.9 km
  • Stage 2 - June 18: Villeneuve-sur-Lot - Castres, 190.3 km
  • Stage 3 - June 19: Castres - Saint-Gaudens, 184.6 km
  • Stage 4 - June 20: Saint-Gaudens - Peyragudes, 147.8 km

Preview

US Postal's Lance Armstrong is taking an even lower key approach to his Tour de France build up, as he announced his non-participation in the Route du Sud (2.3) today. His team will ride, but be captained by Dauphiné winner, Tyler Hamilton who is in excellent condition at the moment. For his part, Armstrong said that he had done enough preparation for the Tour after finishing 3rd in the Dauphiné and will now rest up before July 1.

Other favourites for this 4 day tour include Jonathan Vaughters and Bobby Julich (CA), both of whom showed good form in the Dauphiné, and Vaughters won this race last year. In addition, the Lotto squad of Rik Verbrugghe and Kurt Van De Wouwer will take part, as will Festina's Cristophe Moreau.

The race starts today with a double stage: 102.3 kilometres starting and finishing in Villeneuve-sur-Lot in the morning, followed by a 14.9 kilometre individual time trial in the afternoon. The deciding stage is likely to be the final one on June 20, as it includes three 1st category Pyreneean climbs: Col d'Aspin, Col du Vallee Louron-Azet and the Col du Haut Balestas.

In addition to the above teams, Banesto, Fassa Bortolo, Ag2r-Prevoyance, Kelme, Euskaltel, Big Mat Auber 93, Cofidis, Rabobank, Française des Jeux, Besson Chaussures, Mobilvetta, and Jean Delatour will make up the number to 17.

Starting list (provisional)

CREDIT AGRICOLE                    US POSTAL SERVICE

1 Jonathan Vaughters (USA)         11
2 Christopher Boardman (GBr)       12 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus)
3 Fabrice Gougot (Fra)             13 Tyler Hamilton (USA)
4 Sébastien Hinault (Fra)          14 Patrick Jonker (Ned)
5 Christopher Jenner (NZl)         15 Steffen Kjaergaard (Nor)
6 Bobby Julich (USA)               16 Kevin Livingston (USA)
7 Anthony Morin (Fra)              17 Cédric Vasseur (Fra)
8 Jens Voigt (Ger)                 18 Steve Vermaut (Bel)

LOTTO - ADECCO                     BANESTO

21 Geert Verheyen (Bel)            31 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol)
22 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel)        32 Tomasz Brozyna (Pol)
23 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel)            33 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita)
24 Glenn D'hollander (Bel)         34 David Latasa Lasa (Spa)
25 Manu Lhoir (Bel)                35 Pablo Lastras (Spa)
26 Kurt Van Lancker (Bel)          36 Denis Menchov (Rus)
27 Paul Van Hyfte (Bel)            37 Aitor Osa (Spa)
28 Sébastien Demarbaix (Bel)       38 Orlando Rodriguez (Por)

FASSA BORTOLO                      AG2R PREVOYANCE

41 Fabio Baldato (Ita)             51 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra)
42 Gabriele Balducci (Ita)         52 Benoît Salmon (Fra)
43 Andrea Ferrigato (Ita)          53 Philippe Bordenave (Fra)
44 Nicola Loda (Ita)               54 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus)
45 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita)       55 Pascal Chanteur (Fra)
46 Roberto Petito (Ita)            56 David Delrieu (Fra)
47 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu)          57 Laurent Estadieu (Fra)
48 Matteo Tosatto (Ita)            58 Andrei Kivilev (Kaz)

KELME-COSTA BLANCA                 EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI

61 Santiago Botero (Col)           71 Mikel Artetxe (Spa)
62 Javier Ochoa (Spa)              72 Gorka Arrizabalaga (Spa)
63 Aitor Gonzalez (Spa)            73 Ruben Diaz De Cerio (Spa)
64 Javier Pascual Rodriguez (Spa)  74 Igor Flores (Spa)
65 Alberto Contreras Carlos (Col)  75 Aitor Kintana (Spa)
66 Manuel Cuenca Juan (Spa)        76 Iban Mayo (Spa)
67 Maria Manzano Jesus (Spa)       77 Samuel Sanchez (Spa)
68 Ruben Galvan (Spa)              78 Josu Silloniz (Spa)

BIGMAT AUBER 93                    COFIDIS

81 Ludovic Auger (Fra)             91 Laurent Desbiens (Fra)
82 Thierry Bourguignon (Fra)       92 Nico Mattan (Bel)
83 Thierry Gouvenou (Fra)          93 Claude Lamour (Fra)
84 Lylian Lebreton (Fra)           94 Laurent Lefevre (Fra)
85 Dominique Rault (Fra)           95 David Millar (GBr)
86 Alexei Sivakov (Rus)            96 David Moncoutie (Fra)
87 Denis Leproux (Fra)             97 Jo Planckaert (Bel)
88 Christophe Capelle (Fra)        98 Christophe Rinero (Fra)

FESTINA                            RABOBANK

101 Olivier Asmaker (Fra)          121 Leon Van Bon (Ned)
102 Florent Brard (Fra)            122 Aart Vierhouten (Ned)
103 Giuseppe Di Grande (Ita)       123 Karsten Kroon (Ned)
104 Fabian Jeker (Swi)             124 Matthé Pronk (Ned)
105 Pascal Lino (Fra)              125 Bram Degroot (Ned)
106 Laurent Madouas (Fra)          126 Addy Engels (Ned)
107 Christophe Moreau (Fra)        127 Marcel Duijn (Ned)
108 Nicolas Reynaud (Fra)          128 Jan Boven (Ned)

LA FRANCAISE DES JEUX              BESSON CHAUSSURES

131 Jimmy Casper (Fra)             141 Sergey Belousov (Kaz)
132 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra)         142 Médéric Clair (Fra)
133 Grzegorz Gwiazdowski (Pol)     143 Lorenzo Di Silvestro (Ita)
134 Stéphane Heulot (Fra)          144 Nicolas Dumont (Fra)
135 Xavier Jan (Fra)               145 Dmitri Fofonov (Kaz)
136 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra)         146 Christophe Gauthier (Fra)
137 Lars Michaelsen (Den)          147 Sébastien Laroche (Fra)
138 Cyril Saugrain (Fra)           148 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz)

MOBILVETTA DESIGN/ROSSIN           JEAN DELATOUR

151 Laurent Roux (Fra)             161 Christophe Bassons (Fra)
152 Sergei Lelekin (Rus)           162 Jérôme Bernard (Fra)
153 Devis Miorin (Ita)             163 Frédéric Bessy (Fra)
154 Alberto Ongarato (Ita)         164 Gilles Bouvard (Fra)
155 Mario Manzoni (Ita)            165 Patrice Halgand (Fra)
156 Mirko Gualdi (Ita)             166 Christophe Oriol (Fra)
157 Filippo Baldo (Ita)            167 Bruno Thibout (Fra)
158 Ivan Quaranta (Ita)            168 Olivier Trastour (Fra)

Past Winners

The Route du Sud began officially in 1988 as a Cat 2.4 event. It was previously known as the Tour du Tarn (1977-81) and then Tour Midi-Pyrénees (1982-87).
1977    Jacques Esclassan (Fra) Peugeot
1978    Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (Fra) Gitane
1979    Yvon Bertin (Fra) Renault
1980    Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot
1981    Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra) Peugeot
1982    Francesco Moser (Ita) Famucine
1983    Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot
1984    Pascal Simon (Fra) Peugeot
1985    Stephen Roche (Ire) La Redoute
1986    Niki Rüttimann (Swi) La Vie Claire
1987    Régis Clere (Fra) Teka
1988    Ronan Pensec (Fra) Z Peugeot
1989    Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Z Peugeot
1990    Yves Bonnamour (Fra) Castorama
1991    Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Helvetia
1992    Arturas Kasputis (Lit) Postobon
1993    Eric Boyer (Fra) GAN
1994    Alvaro Mejia (Col) Motorola
1995    Laurent Dufaux (Sui) Festina
1996    Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE
1997    Patrick Jonker (Aus) Rabobank
1998	Armand de las Cuevas (Fra) Banesto 
1999    Jonathan Vaughters (USA) US Postal

Past winners from Mario Stiehl, Berlin