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4th Paris-Corrèze - 2.3
France, September 24-26, 2004
Stage 1 - September 24: Contres - Saint Amand Montrond, 176.6 km
Kirsipuu wins again and promotes Gerrans
By Jean-François Quénet, velomania.net in St-Amand-Montrond
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Jaan Kirsipuu is still a true winner. He hasn't disappeared from the scene since he won stage 1 in the Tour de France. Just like one year ago when he outsprinted Baden Cooke, he took stage 1 of Paris-Corrèze again on the same finishing line of St-Amand-Montrond. Not in a bunch sprint but solo!
Kirsipuu was a member of a 36 man breakaway that went after just 100 kilometres of racing. All the major teams were represented, but Ag2r was definitely the best one with four riders, Jean-Patrick Nazon, Christophe Oriol and Simon Gerrans being there in addition to the usual leader of the team who has decided to leave and join Crédit Agricole for the next two seasons.
Gerrans took the bonus on the line when the bunch came the first time with 20km to go. He also controlled some attacks by Jurgen van de Walle of Chocolate Jacques. "After the last climb we decided we would ride the sprint for Nazon who was feeling better than me," Kirsipuu explained. "But I had still had to follow the moves. The first one was the right one."
Benjamin Levécot of Oktos was the first to attack with 7km to go. "He was so strong that I wasn't able to do my turn," the Estonian added. "I've won because of my experience."
With 4km to go, Kirsipuu went solo and resisted to the group where his teammates were busy watching the danger. "It's going to be hard for GC but we have different options," he added. "Oriol is a good climber but I don't how his condition is now after he was sick at the Vuelta and pulled out. Our man could well be the new one, he's looking really strong."
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Kirsipuu was referring to Simon Gerrans, Ag2r's new signing from Australia who already has the Tour de la Corrèze amongst his seven wins as an amateur in France with Team U Nantes-Atlantique this year. He is now showing how quick he's able to pick the professional level. After stage 1, Gerrans is fourth on GC, just two seconds down on Philippe Gilbert from Fdjeux.com, who was already the best young rider at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under in January and is still very competitive at the end of the season. He is one of the hot favourites for Paris-Corrèze.
Only 35 riders are contenders for the GC. The main bunch crossed the line 48 minutes and 20 seconds behind Kirsipuu after getting lost and riding 14 extra kilometres, but was finally classified 16'54 down.
Photography
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet/velomania.net
- A happy Ag2r team with new signing Simon Gerrans from Australia
- Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2r) is the first leader of Paris-Corrèze
- The ffirst king of the mountain is Bas Gilling one of the Rabobank young guns but future member of T-Mobile.
- Best young rider is Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux.com) just alike early this year at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under.
Results
1 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) AG2r Prévoyance 2 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.02 3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com 4 Ivan Terenin (Rus) Russian National Team 5 Bastiaan Giling (Ned) Rabobank TT III 6 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 7 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank TT III 8 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Russian National Team 9 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 10 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Domo 11 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III 12 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 13 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 14 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto-Domo 15 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 16 David Boucher (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 17 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Crédit Agricole 18 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 19 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 20 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Action ATI 21 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 22 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Lokomotiv 23 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 24 Christophe Oriol (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 25 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Ag2R Prevoyance 26 Krzysztof Krzywy (Pol) Action ATI 27 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 28 Ben Day (Aus) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 29 Andrey Pchelkin (Rus) Russian National Team 30 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 31 Benjamin Levecot (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 32 Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank TT III 0.07 33 Thomas Ziegler (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.25 34 Nikolay Trousov (Rus) Lokomotiv 5.20 35 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto-Domo 36 Sergeï Krushevskiy (Uzb) Oktos-Saint Quentin 13.32 37 Giovann Bernaudeau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 15.58 38 Stef Clement (Ned) Rabobank TT III 16.54 39 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Lotto-Domo 40 Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Action ATI 41 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Lotto-Domo 42 Marcin Osinski (Pol) Action ATI 43 David Breard (Fra) Auber 93 44 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Lokomotiv 45 Guillaume Auger (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 46 Rémy Pauriol (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 47 Pierre Bourquenoud (Swi) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 48 Maxim Gourov (Kaz) Oktos-Saint Quentin 49 Michael Blanchy (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 50 Christophe Rinero (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 51 Adam Wadecki (Pol) Action ATI 52 Kristof Trouve (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 53 Glenn d'Hollander (Bel) Lotto-Domo 54 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Lotto-Domo 55 Michel Van Haecke (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 56 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Rabobank TT III 57 Anton Mindlin (Rus) Lokomotiv 58 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Gerolsteiner 59 Andrey Mizurov (Kaz) Oktos 60 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Gerolsteiner 61 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Lokomotiv 62 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner 63 Dennis Kraft (Ger) Action ATI 64 Sergey Lazarev (Rus) Russian National Team 65 Bradley Mcgee (Aus) FDJeux.com 66 René Haselbacher (Aut) Gerolsteiner 67 Jeremy Yates (NZl) Crédit Agricole 68 Maxim Averin (Rus) Lokomotiv 69 Renaud Dion (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 70 Laurent Brochard (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 71 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 72 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo 73 Sergey Poluhin (Rus) Russian National Team 74 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 75 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 76 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 77 Saulius Ruskys (Ltu) Oktos-Saint Quentin 78 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 79 Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 80 Léonardo Duque (Col) Chocolade Jacques Wincor-Nixdorf 81 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Auber 93 82 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 83 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 84 Nicolas Reynaud (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 85 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 86 Ashley Humbert (Aus) FDJeux.com 87 Freddy Bichot (Fra) FDJeux.com 88 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 89 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 90 Loïc Lamouller (Fra) Auber 93 91 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Crédit Agricole 92 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 93 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Auber 93 94 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 95 Nicolas Portal (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 96 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJeux.com 97 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 98 Alexander Serov (Rus) Lokomotiv 99 Stéphane Barthe (Fra) Oktos 100 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 101 Nicolas Dulac (Fra) R.A.G.T. Semences-MG Rover 102 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Russian National Team 103 Laurent Paumier (Fra) Auber 93 104 Gert Vanderaerden (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 105 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 106 Damien Monier (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 107 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 108 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Crédit Agricole 109 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 110 Peter Wuyts (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 111 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, le credit par Telephone 112 Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 113 Eric Berthou (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 114 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93 115 Mathieu Cricquelion (Bel) Chocolade Jacques Wincor-Nixdorf 116 Michiel Elijzen (Ned) Rabobank TT III 117 Damien Nazon (Fra) Crédit Agricole 118 Mark De Maar (Ned) Rabobank TT III General classification after stage 1 1 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2r-Prevoyance ... 4 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Ag2r-Prevoyance
