Mi-Août Bretonne #4 - 1.5

France, August 9, 2003

Results

Team Barloworld so close to the win... again

By Jean-François Quénet

Team Barloworld finished the Mi-Août bretonne the same way they started: with a second place. But Jacques Fullard was clearly beaten by Mickael Buffaz, the eventual winner of the series, on day 1 in Plougasnou, while today the commissaires had to view the photo-finish to declare Freddy Bichot beaten by young French pro Yannick Talabardon from BigMat.

"I've made a mistake, Bichot admitted. I sprinted from behind but I waited too much, I overtook him but too late, there were 2 centimetres missing on the finishing line." Talabardon had to lead the sprint because he could see that Bichot's team-mate, South African champion David George, was coming across very quickly.

"As we were four men in front, including two from Barloworld, we agreed that David would watch the Italian while my job was to follow Talabardon", Bichot explained. The Italian was Francesco Cipoletta from Nippon Hodo. "He was clearly our strongest adversary, directeur sportif Michel Gros said. David eliminated him by creating a split, then he surprised him again and dropped him for third place."

George, Talabardon and Cipoletta rejoined Bichot who was alone for three laps. "It was really impressive," Gros added. "We actually were the most impressive team of the day."

Gros's former Jean Delatour was a little bit annoyed to see the TT3 from South Africa looking so good but the TT1 and TT2 professionals had the last say with Buffaz claiming the overall despite the threat of Cipoletta and Talabardon, only 22, giving Bichot a lesson. "I wasn't the strongest in the breakaway and I didn't think I would win", BigMat's neo-pro declared.

Results - 141.8 km

1 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) BigMat           3.32.59
2 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Team Barloworld
3 David George (RSA) Team Barloworld           0.04
4 Francesco Cipoletta (Ita) Nippo Hodo         0.17
5 Shinishi Fukushima (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor  0.40
6 Jonathan Dayus (GBr) Team Ringerike
7 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Jean Floc'h            0.42
8 Nicolas Meunier (Fra) BigMat                 1.14
9 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) Oktos               1.19
10 Mickael Buffaz (Fra) Jean Delatour
11 Yann Pivois (Fra) UC Châteauroux
12 Olivier Nari (Fra) Jean Floc'h
13 Ben Johnson (Aus) SCO Dijon                 1.21
14 Sébastien Chevau (Fra) VC Loudun            1.35
15 Stéphane Pétilleau (Fra) VC Roubaix         1.44
16 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Ringerike
17 Eric Berthou (Fra) Team Barloworld
18 Sébastien Talabardon (Fra) BigMat           2.20
19 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Fdjeux.com          7.56
20 Pierre Therville (Fra) VC Vaulx-en-Velin    8.01

Final classification

1 Mickael Buffaz (Fra) Jean Delatour
2 Francesco Cipoletta (Ita) Nippo Hodo
3 Yann Pivois (Fra) UC Châteauroux
4 Ben Johnson (Aus) SCO Dijon
5 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) Jean Floc'h

Best young rider: Ben Johnson (Aus) SCO Dijon

Best Breton rider: Freddy Ravaleu (Fra) VC Loudun