4th Paris-Corrèze - 2.3

France, September 24-26, 2004

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Stage 2 - September 25: St Amand Montrond - Châtel-Guyon, 184.5 km

Brard is back, Gilbert moves up

By Jean-François Quénet, www.velomania.net in Châtelguyon

Stage winner Florent Brard
Photo ©: JF Quenet

The world of cycling may not be too impressed by the French team pre-selected for the World Championship. The leader is meant to be Jérôme Pineau of Brioches La Boulangère and the first list of designated riders doesn't include the likes of Christophe Moreau, Florent Brard and Sylvain Chavanel.

On the roads of Paris-Corrèze, Moreau tried to give a positive response to the new selector Frédéric Moncassin. He worked actively again during stage two behind the breakaway of the day, composed of six men: Brard and Leonardo Duque of Chocolate Jacques, Eric Leblacher who is Moreau's teammate at Crédit Agricole, Christophe Rinero from RAGT, Fdjeux.com's Sandy Casar and Chavanel of La Boulangère.

Only Brard and Chavanel stayed away. They competed strongly for the uphill stage win. It was very tight at the end. "I started sprinting," Brard described. "He moved up at my level and I jumped with my bike. It was so close..."

This is Brard's only second win this year after a stage in the Giro di Lucca in February. "I love the hot conditions in summer and strangely I get most of my results at the beginning or at the end of the year," he commented. Brard is clever about his performances this year, thus he doesn't pretend to be owed any favour from the selectors. Chavanel never planned to ride the World's this year and still doesn't intend to, although he shows excellent condition with only one week to go to the race for rainbow.

Talking tactics
Photo ©: JF Quenet

For the overall classification of Paris-Corrèze, Dimitri Fofonov who is a local in this part of France near Clermont-Ferrand in the center of the country attacked with 30km to go. The Kazakh rider from Cofidis managed to stay away for half of the remaining race. Then Philippe Gilbert profited from a downhill to escape from the main bunch 7 km before the end. He maintained 10 seconds lead over the group from which Jaan Kirsipuu and Robert Förster, 1st and 2nd the day before, had disappeared.

Gilbert is the new leader of the event. He looks quite confident in keeping the jersey, just alike Baden Cooke two years ago. Now the question is: will FDJeux.com's Australian sprinter pass the secrets of Paris-Corrèze on to his Belgian teammate or to his good friend and fellow compatriot from Victoria Simon Gerrans, who has just signed for Ag2r? The last stage contains so many hills, it may not be a tactical debate anyway.

Photography

Images by Jean-Francois Quenet/velomania.net

Olympic points race champion Mikhail Ignatiev discovers just how hard it is to race on the road.
Stage winner Florent Brard (Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf) on the podium.
New race leader Philippe Gilbert (FdJeux.com) talks tactics with his mentor Marc Madiot.

Results

1 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf      4.39.44 (39.595 km/h)
2 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère
3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com                            1.45
4 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans                   1.55
5 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III
6 Thomas Ziegler (Ger) Gerolsteiner
7 Jeremy Yates (NZl) Crédit Agricole
8 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone
9 Mark De Maar (Ned) Rabobank TT III
10 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank TT III
11 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Domo
12 Andrey Pchelkin (Rus) Russian National Team
13 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans
14 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole
15 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance

26 David Moncoutié (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone
33 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) RAGT Semences - MG Rover
36 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com
58 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère                  6.15
65 Christophe Rinero (Fra) RAGT Semences - MG Rover            6.49
96 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R Prevoyance                        16.15

DNF Bradley Mcgee (Aus) FDJeux.com

General classification after stage 2  

1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com                         8.13.08
2 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Ag2R Prevoyance                          0.16
3 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III                           0.19
4 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone
5 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank TT III
6 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Domo
7 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans
8 Bastiaan Giling (Ned) Rabobank TT III
9 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans
10 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf
11 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf
12 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole
13 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Action ATI
14 Andrey Pchelkin (Rus) Russian National Team
15 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) RAGT Semences - MG Rover

31 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R Prevoyance                        14.27
34 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf       15.03
35 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère              15.08
40 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance                     17.11
45 David Moncoutié (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone
52 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com                               20.44
71 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère                 21.31
73 Christophe Rinero (Fra) RAGT Semences - MG Rover           22.05