U23 Men's Road Race

Friday, October 13, 2000, 12:30

The local time in Plouay is

Plouay: Circuit Jean Yves-Perron, 169.8 km (12 laps)

Preview    Start List    Route Description    Profile

Preview

With 12 laps of the tough Plouay circuit to contest and once again uncertain weather, this year's U23 championships will come down to how well the always strong Italian team can control the race tempo. For three out of the last four years that the U23 (espoirs) category has existed, Italy has dominated this event with victories to Giuliano Figueras (1996), Ivan Basso (1998) and Leonardo Giordani (1999). The only rider to stop their run was Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor) in 1997 in San Sebastian, with the silver medal that year going to a certain Oscar Freire.

This year, the Italians have brought a very strong team again, led by current world number one, Graziano Gasparre. Along with Lorenzo Bernucci, Matteo Carrara, Nicola Gavazzi, Stefano Guerrini and Franco Pellizotti, the Italians are looking quite good. Gli Azzuri will either ride for Gasparre or their sprinter Gavazzi. However, they will experience some fierce competition from the German team, who have the world no. 3 in their ranks: Torsten Hiekmann. They are missing Patrick Sinkewitz though, and this weakens the team somewhat.

Belgium have a team with a great deal of depth as well: Jurgen Van Goolen and Jan Verstraeten have been performing consistently well all year, and are certainly in form now. The Russians are strong; with Petrov (powerful U23 TT winner) and dynamic Dimitri Gainitdinov both in form, the Bear should be in evidence. And the Ukrainains have Popoyvych, who's been winning big races all year in Italy. The Netherlands will bring Bjorn Hoeben, David Orvalho, Bram Tankink and Remmert Wielinga to the fore.

Australians Brad Davidson, Mick Rogers, Mark Roland and Allan and Scott Davis have spent the year in Europe (mainly in Italy) gaining valuable experience on the tough U23 scene, and they should be able to make an impression today. Poland have one of the best squads, with Sylvester Szmyd leading the way with his climbing skills, ably supported by Zbigniew Wyrzykowski and Mateusz Mroz.

The Khazaks are never to be underestimated, with the likes of Andrey Kashechkin and Dmitriy Muravyev, who dominated the Tour of China last month. USA have only entered three men: Brad Buccambuso, Brice Jones and Derek Wilkerson (USA) and it will be interesting to see how they fare against the rest of the world.

Kim Kirchen of Luxemburg is another fast and experienced U23 who could be a factor too. Hometeam France is not as strong as in years past; Le Mevel is likely their go-to guy today. Ireland have their 1998 Junior champ, Mark Scanlon, while other individuals to watch include Martin Elmiger (Swi), Bernhard Eisel (Aut), Stefan Adamsson (Swe) and Charles Dionne (Can).

Start List

1 Graziano Gasparre (Ita)
2 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita)
3 Matteo Carrara (Ita)
4 Nicola Gavazzi (Ita)
5 Stefano Guerrini (Ita)
6 Franco Pellizotti (Ita)
7 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger)
8 Thomas Kaufmann (Ger)
9 Ronny Scholz (Ger)
10 Björn Schröder (Ger)
11 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)
12 Gusty Bausch (Lux)
13 Kim Kirchen (Lux)
14 Frank Schleck (Lux)
15 Michael Albasini (Swi)
16 Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
17 Aurélien Clerc (Swi)
18 Martin Elmiger (Swi)
19 Grégory Rast (Swi)
20 Andy Cappelle (Bel)
21 Nico Sijmens (Bel)
22 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel)
23 Jan Verstraeten (Bel)
24 Frederik Willems (Bel)
25 Dainius Kairelis (Ltu)
26 Zydrunas Ragelskis (Ltu)
27 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu)
28 Drasutis Stundzia (Ltu)
29 Andrius Zaleskis (Ltu)
30 Dmitri Gainitdinov (Rus)
31 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus)
32 Evgeni Petrov (Rus)
33 Dmitri Semov (Rus)
34 Mikhail Timochine (Rus)
35 Anthony Charteau (Fra)
36 Nicolas Inaudi (Fra)
37 Eric Le Blacher (Fra)
38 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra)
39 Thomas Voeckler (Fra)
40 Gilberto Martins (Por)
41 José Felipe Oliveira Santos (Por)
42 Sergio Paulinho (Por)
43 Jose Rodrigues (Por)
44 Hugo Sabido (Por)
45 Bjorn Hoeben (Ned)
46 Ronald Mutsaars (Ned)
47 David Orvalho (Ned)
48 Bram Tankink (Ned)
49 Remmert Wielinga (Ned)
50 David Arroyo Duran (Spa)
51 Gustavo Cesar Veloso (Spa)
52 Israel Nunez Baticon (Spa)
53 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa)
54 Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez (Spa)
55 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr)
56 Yuriy Krivtcov (Ukr)
57 Roman Luhoviy (Ukr)
58 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
59 Volodymyr Starchyk (Ukr)
60 Matej Gnezda (Slo)
61 Matej Marin (Slo)
62 Matej Mugerli (Slo)
63 Uros Silar (Slo)
64 Matej Stare (Slo)
65 Bernhard Eisel (Aut)
66 Andreas Knapp (Aut)
67 Christian Pfannberger (Aut)
68 Ralph Scherzer (Aut)
69 Harald Starzengruber (Aut)
70 Brad Davidson (Aus)
71 Allan Davis (Aus)
72 Scott Davis (Aus)
73 Michael Rogers (Aus)
74 Mark Roland (Aus)
75 Jamie Alberts (GBr)
76 Russel Downing (GBr)
77 Robin Sharman (GBr)
78 Tom Southam (GBr)
79 Neil Swithenbank (GBr)
80 Mateusz Mroz (Pol)
81 Daniel Okrucinski (Pol)
82 Mickaël Olejnic (Pol)
83 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol)
84 Zbigniew Wyrzykowski (Pol)
85 Dzianis Isachenka (Blr)
86 Alexandr Kazlov (Blr)
87 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr)
88 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr)
89 Sergei Stets (Blr)
90 Thomas Eriksen (Den)
91 Jimmy Hansen (Den)
92 Michael Larsen (Den)
93 Michael Reihs (Den)
94 Henrik Simper (Den)
95 Lars Breiseth (Nor)
96 Kenneth Flesja (Nor)
97 Kjetil Groven Löitegaard (Nor)
98 Per Martin Lund (Nor)
99 Gisle Viköyr (Nor)
100 Jan Gazi (Svk)
101 Radovan Husar (Svk)
102 Milan Sihelsky (Svk)
103 Branislav Stejskal (Svk)
104 Stefan Adamsson (Swe)
105 Kristoffer Ingeby (Swe)
106 Tobias Lergard (Swe)
107 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe)
108 Petter Renäng (Swe)
109 Mikhail Andreyev (Kaz)
110 Maxim Gurov (Kaz)
111 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz)
112 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)
113 Fraser McMaster (NZl)
114 Karl Moore (NZl)
115 Ryan Russell (NZl)
116 Gregory Taylor (NZl)
117 Matthew Yates (NZl)
118 Stephen Gallagher (Irl)
119 Dermot Nally (Irl)
120 David O'loughlin (Irl)
121 Mark Scanlon (Irl)
124 Kimmo Kananen (Fin)
125 Juha Paajanen (Fin)
126 Oscar Stenström (Fin)
127 Massimo De Marin (Cro)
128 Matija Kvasina (Cro)
129 Hrvoje Miholjevic (Cro)
130 Radoslav Rogina (Cro)
131 Gareth Barry (Zim)
132 Chris Hoffman (Zim)
133 Ashley Lambert (Zim)
134 Troy Leher (Zim)
135 Alexandru Sabalin (Mda)
136 Owen Hannie (RSA)
137 James Perry (RSA)
138 Alwyn Scheepers (RSA)
139 Daniel Spence (RSA)
140 Ondrej Fadrny (Cze)
141 Michal Prusa (Cze)
142 Pavel Zerzan (Cze)
143 Fabian Ceron Maya (Mex)
144 Arquimedes Lam Zamora (Mex)
145 Christian Valenzuela (Mex)
146 Armando Vigueras Hernandez (Mex)
147 Takashi Tsumuraya (Jpn)
148 Masamichi Yamamoto (Jpn)
149 Michel Cerdan-Ngoma (Gab)
150 Maxuel Obame Mendou (Gab)
151 Riadh Baatout (Tun)
152 Samuel Houhannisyan (Arm)
153 Cyril Larue (Sey)
154 Hedson Mathieu (Sey)
155 Andy Rose (Sey)
156 Minas Malatos (Gre)
157 Panagiotis Marendakis (Gre)
158 Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre)
159 Brad Buccambuso (USA)
160 Brice Jones (USA)
161 Derek Wilkerson (USA)
162 Charles Dionne (Can)
163 Wannes Maertens (Can)
164 Angel Junior Flanegin (Aru)
165 Rafael Bayer (Lie)
166 Dan Diaconu (Rom)
167 Siu Lun Ho (HKg)
168 Chun Ming Tsoi (HKg)
169 Markku Ainsalu (Est)
170 Erik Raadom (Est)
171 Erik Hoffmann (Nam)
172 Horst Neumann (Nam)
173 Juris Mikulens (Lat)
174 Andris Reiss (Lat)
175 Andris Spehts (Lat)
176 David Arato (Hun)
177 David Sipocz (Hun)
178 Laszlo Barkoczi (Hun)
179 Tamas Lengyel (Hun)

Route Description

What a great, classic road world's circuit; a tough, technical and unpredictable parcours that will crown worthy champions. Named after Jean-Yves Perron, the organizer of the Grand Prix de l'Ouest, it's a 14.150 km tour through the arriere-pays of Morbihan. The parcours heads southeast with a tailwind right away, up the fast first climb, a côte of 1.5km long and 6% average grade, with the last 300m to Le Harras steeper at 8% gradient. Here's where the attacks will start on Circuit Perron after 2.2 km. This is followed by a short descent, then another quick leg-sapping climb of 300m at 10%.

After a tight technical descent through Kerscoulic and Questenen to Poulhibet, the third and perhaps most crucial climb of Circuit Perron heads towards the finish in Plouay. With 3.5km to go, the final cote is a wide-open, windy 1.5km haul with an average gradient of 8%. When counter-moves get away on the second climb and the descent to Poulhibet, the chasers will feel empowered to bring them back up the final climb. Once the last climb is crested, there are 2.15 km to go on a fast, rolling tailwind section to the finish. Beware, the final 1 km is downhill for much of the way, with a tricky uphill finish that may be difficult to judge.

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