Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Giro finale Photo ©: Bettini |
54th Tour de la Guadeloupe - 2.6
Guadeloupe, August 6-15, 2004
Main Page Results Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 5 - August 11: Vieux-Habitants - Gourbeyre, 137,2 km
GC shake up with Venezuelans out
Lecoq in yellow
By Hedwig Kröner in Gourbeyre
|
In the early morning of today's stage, a rumour spread rapidly around the team hotels: the entire Venezuelan team was to be excluded from the race because of the recent doping product findings. At the start, this was confirmed and explained by the race's regional commissaire. Because the local legal authorities had not officially named the Venezuelan rider that had tried to hide doping products in his luggage upon arrival to Guadeloupe, the entire team was excluded. And, as there is only one Colombian rider at Euro Mutuelle UCC and this being "the only official information available", Carlos Castañeda also was excluded today. He is presumed to have hidden banned substances in his bike's frame.
The top rankings of yesterday's stage 4 were thus revised. Paul Torres' stage win was given to Javier Guerrero (Excelsior), his yellow jersey to Alexandre Lecoq (UVMG). Although a reaction from the race organisers was necessary given the severity of the accusations, one couldn't help feeling that it came too late. The race's results have been falsified for five days. And disqualifying an entire team because the identity of the accused rider appeared questionable as well. But then again, the race commissaire also excluded Cédric Jourdan (Sarre-Moselle), for holding on to his team car in need of a quick readjustment of his gearshift, where a simple fine would normally have sufficed. Go figure.
The riders did depart finally, and a group of 10 including Canada's Cory Lange left the bunch right away. Some chasers did try to get to them, but without success. By km 60, they had a comfortable lead of 3'30, even after the first two 3rd category hills of the day. After 100 km, at the third climb and right before the mountain finish, the general classification contenders such as Flober Peña Peña (LOFT/UVN), Nicolas Dumont (SMRDA), Daniel Bernal (USL), Javier Guerrero (Excelsior) and Miguel Ubeto (EDS) came up to the exploded front group and left them behind.
Meanwhile, Cory Lange had climbed in front and set quite a pace, but 3 km before the finish, he too was swallowed. On the last kilometre, Nicolas Dumont attacked at the right moment and sprinted to the top. Alexandre Lecoq came in 35" later and will be wearing yellow again tomorrow.
Photography
Images by Hedwig Kröner
- Peña Peña and teammate looking at the roadbook
- Javier Guerrero taking the gold medal for yesterday's win
- The new yellow jersey at the start: Alexandre Lecoq (UVMG)
- One of the 10 breakaways: Jan Deutschmann (Sarre-Moselle)
- The Peña Peña group (right) with Daniel Bernal and Nicolas Dumont
- At the third climb, there was no escaping it
- Stage winner Nicolas Dumont on the podium
Results
1 Nicolas Dumont (Fra) SM-RDA 3.34.28 2 Flober Pena Pena (Col) LOFT 0.04 3 Miguel Ubeto (Ven) EDS 4 Daniel Bernal (Col) USL 5 Javier Guerero Gonzalez (Col) Excelsior 6 Anthony Morin (Fra) Sarre-Moselle 0.31 7 Stéphane Bellicaud (Fra) France Métropole 0.33 8 Yvan Boss (Gua) ASBM 9 Alexandre Lecoq (Gua) UVMG 0.35 10 Nelson Ismaël Sanchez Jimenez (Col) ECO-CC 11 Christophe Cospar (Gua) Orange 1.09 12 Jacky Gibrien (Gua) UCM 1.43 13 Cory Lange (Can) Canada 1.48 14 José Durimel (Col) USL 2.03 15 Norbert Poels (Bel) Belgium 2.08 General classification after stage 5 1 Alexandre Lecoq (Gua) UVMG 17.14.44 2 Flober Pena Pena (Col) LOFT 0.34 3 Miguel Ubeto (Gua) EDS 0.41 4 Nicolas Dumont (Fra) SM-RDA 2.26 5 Daniel Bernal (Col) USL 2.44 6 Javier Guerero Gonzalez (Col) Excelsior 2.50 7 Christophe Cospar (Gua) Orange 3.20 8 Stéphane Bellicaud (Fra) France Métropole 3.31 9 Yvan Boss (Gua) ASBM 3.37 10 Anthony Morin (Fra) Sarre-Moselle 4.45 11 Régis Marechaux (Gua) LOFT 5.44
