French National Road Championships - CN

France, June 28 - July 1, 2001

Day 3 - July 1: Elite Men road race

Bonjour scores the double

Didier Rous (Bonjour) is the French Road Champion for 2001 in Argenton-sur-Creuse. The very much in-form 30 year old preceded his teammate Walter Bénéteau across the line after the two had attacked a six man leading group with 10 kilometres to go. In third place was Arnaud Pretot (Festina), with Nicolas Vogondy (FdJ), Laurent Jalabert (CSC-Tiscali) and Olivier Trastour (Jean Delatour) rounding out the top 6.

For Jean-Rene Bernaudeau's team, it was a perfect finish, but Rous said that he was "disappointed that we had to dispute this kind of victory," as Bénéteau is also his roommate.

In warm sunshine, the peloton departed at 11:10 for the 230 kilometre, 14 lap race. The attacks started after 23 kilometres, with Laurent Brochard and Eddy Seigneur (Jean Delatour), Robert Sassone (Cofidis), and Nicolas Vogondy (FdJ) being amongst the aggressors.

On the 7th lap, a group of 14 got away containing the eventual winners (Rous, Bénéteau, Pretot, Vogondy, Jalabert, Trastour) as well as Stephane Bergès, Christophe Mengin, Olivier Asmaker, Christophe Edaleine, Christopher Jenner, Gilles Bouvard, Lylian Lebreton, and David Lefèvre.

As they increased their advantage to around 3 minutes, Laurent Jalabert attacked with Trastour, Rous and Pretot with 2 laps to go. First Nicolas Vogondy, then Walter Bénéteau managed to bridge up, and that was the final break. On the last lap, they had 43 seconds on the chasers before Bénéteau attacked on the climb. His teammate Rous quickly joined him, and the two worked perfectly until the finish to tkae the race. Trastour tried a solo move for third, but was caught with a few kilometres left.

Rous has been a professional since 1993, riding with Gan (until 1997), Festina (1997-1999) and then Bonjour at the beginning of 2000. He is one of the best performed French riders this season, winning the Trophée des Grimpeurs and the Four Days of Dunkirk.

Results - 229.3 km

1 Didier Rous (Bonjour)                               5.18.08 (43.25 km/h)
2 Walter Beneteau (Bonjour)
3 Arnaud Pretot (Festina)                                1.08
4 Nicolas Vogondy (La Française des Jeux)
5 Laurent Jalabert (CSC - Tiscali)
6 Olivier Trastour (Jean Delatour)
7 Carlos Da Cruz (Festina)                               1.48
8 David Lefevre (Cofidis)                                1.50
9 Stéphane Berges (Ag2r)
10 Lylian Lebreton (Big Mat - Aubervilliers 93)
11 Olivier Asmaker (CSC - Tiscali)
12 Gilles Bouvard (Jean Delatour)
13 Patrice Halgand (Jean Delatour)
14 Christophe Moreau (Festina)
15 François Simon (Bonjour)                              3.35
16 Laurent Brochard (Jean Delatour)
17 Laurent Desbiens (Kelme - Costa Blanca)
18 Franck Renier (Bonjour)
19 Eddy Lembo (Jean Delatour)
20 Anthony Morin (Credit Agricole)
21 Stéphane Heulot (Big Mat - Aubervilliers 93)
22 Charles Guilbert (Bonjour)
23 Ludovic Turpin (Ag2r)
24 Franck Bouyer (Bonjour)                               3.42
25 Nicolas Jalabert (CSC - Tiscali)                      3.48
26 Médéric Clain (Cofidis)                               9.05
27 Vincent Cali (Collstrop - Palmans)
28 Christophe Gauthier (St Quentin - Oktos)              9.07
29 Frédéric Finot (Crédit Agricole)
30 Fabrice Gougot (Crédit Agricole)
31 Jacky Durand (La Française des Jeux)
32 Cyril Saugrain (Big Mat - Aubervilliers 93)
33 Pascal Chanteur (Festina)
34 Gilles Maignan (Ag2r)
35 Christophe Edaleine (Jean Delatour)
36 David Derepas (Phonak)
37 Frédéric Guesdon (La Française des Jeux)
38 Frédéric Bessy (Crédit Agricole)
39 Emmanuel Magnien (La Française des Jeux)
40 Benoît Salmon (Ag2r)
41 Christophe Mengin (La Française des Jeux)
42 Benoît Poilvet (Crédit Agricole)
43 Jean-Cyril Robin (Bonjour)
44 Florent Brard (Festina)
45 Dominique Rault (Big Mat - Aubervilliers 93)
46 David Moncoutie (Cofidis)
47 Robert Sassone (Cofidis)
48 Sylvain Chavanel (Bonjour)

Results courtesy of velomania.net