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4th Paris-Corrèze - 2.3
France, September 24-26, 2004
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Stage 3 - September 26: Objat - Objat, 174.3 km
Gilbert, Gerrans, De Kort and Berthou bring fresh air into cycling
By Jean-François Quénet, velomania.net in Objat
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There are some interesting symbols in cycling: just a few kilometres away from the hotel where the Festina team got to know they were kicked out of the 1998 Tour de France, and during the weekend chosen by Richard Virenque for announcing his retirement from cycling, a new generation seems ready to take over.
Eric Berthou, 24, claimed the last stage of Paris-Corrèze after launching an attack from the kilometre 0. Eight other riders went with him: Leon van Bon (Lotto-Domo), Christophe Edaleine (Cofidis), Patrice Halgand (Crédit Agricole), David Bréard et Lenaïc Olivier (Auber 93), Saulius Ruskys (Oktos), Bernhard Kohl (Rabobank) and Franck Renier (la Boulangère), who was the highest ranked rider on GC just 4'35 down on race leader Philippe Gilbert whose Fdjeux.com team was ready for a strong defence.
A trio composed of Freddy Bichot, Benoît Vaugrenard and Australian stagiaire Ashley Humbert did the hard work for 110 kilometres until an attack by Christophe Moreau smashed the bunch into pieces. Then Sandy Casar, Nicolas Vogondy and Nicolas Fritsch controlled the action. "They have done such a great job, it's their win more than mine," Gilbert commented. "No one with only 16 seconds advantage could say the race was won for sure, but I was strong and I knew that I wouldn't get dropped."
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Finishing 1'14 behind Berthou, closely followed by Ruskys and Renier, there were no worries for Gilbert. Aged 22, he would still be in the U23 category for the world championship if not a member of big pro team, but he will be one of the top riders for the Belgian selection in the highest category next week in Verona. He will defend his national colours for the sixth time in a row after racing as a junior in Plouay 2000, as an espoir in Lisbon 2001 and Zolder 2002, as a pro in Hamilton 2003 and as an Olympian last month in Athens.
Philippe Gilbert is an always-smiling Walloon hailing from Remouchamps, right on the course of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He grew up at the foot of the famous climb of La Redoute and picked a fantastic passion for cycling. "For me, riding my bike for six and half hours when it's cold in the Ardennes is never a problem," he said.
Gilbert recently finished 2nd in Paris-Brussels and GP Wallonie and he was chasing a second win this year after the first one taken in Victor Harbour at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under. That day he was in a breakaway with Simon Gerrans who had no future in professional cycling at the time. Since then, the Victorian joined Team U Nantes-Atlantique in France and signed with Ag2r. He made his new director Vincent Lavenu more than happy with a second place behind Gilbert in Paris-Corrèze. "This is a perfect recruit for our team," Lavenu said. Gerrans also justified the confidence put in him by Australian selectors Shayne Bannan and Neil Stephens for next week's World Championship.
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The third man on the final podium is also someone to watch for the future: Koen de Kort recently scored a fabulous win at the GP Eddy Merckx with other Dutch prodigy Thomas Dekker but there aren't enough spots available inside Rabobank's top team, that's why he'll move to Spain next year and turn pro with Liberty Seguros.
Being held at the end of the season, Paris-Corrèze has become an event for future champions. The first winner was Thor Hushovd in 2002 and Baden Cooke succeeded him before becoming stars of the Tour de France. But the race organised by former Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon will move to August next year and will finish in Chaumeil, a place known for being the hot bed of post-Tour criteriums in the past.
Photography
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet/velomania.net
- Eric Berthou (R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover), takes the last stage of Paris-Corrèze after launching an attack from kilometre 0.
- Today was Eric Berthou's first pro win.
- A champion in the making - Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux.com).
- Former Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon was delighted to welcome on the final podium three young talents: Simon Gerrans, Philippe Gilbert and Koen de Kort.
- The final podium - (L to R) Simon Gerrans (Ag2R Prevoyance, 2nd), Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux.com, 1st) and Koen De Kort (Rabobank TT III).
Results
1 Eric Berthou (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 4.40.34 2 Saulius Ruskys (Ltu) Oktos-Saint Quentin 0.27 3 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 4 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.41 5 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto-Domo 1.10 6 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 7 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III 1.14 8 Benjamin Levecot (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 9 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 10 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Ag2R Prevoyance 11 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 12 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Domo 13 Christophe Rinero (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 14 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 15 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 16 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Lokomotiv 17 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 18 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank TT III 19 Léonardo Duque (Col) Chocolade Jacques Wincor-Nixdorf 20 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 21 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 22 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Crédit Agricole 23 Laurent Brochard (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 24 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com 25 Andrey Ptchelkin (Rus) Russian National Team 26 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 27 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 1.19 28 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 29 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Russian National Team 30 Pierre Bourquenoud (Swi) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 31 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 32 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 33 Jeremy Yates (NZl) Crédit Agricole 34 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Auber 93 35 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo 36 Laurent Paumier (Fra) Auber 93 37 David Breard (Fra) Auber 93 38 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 39 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 1.25 40 David Boucher (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 2.55 41 Bastiaan Giling (Ned) Rabobank TT III 3.21 42 Ben Day (Aus) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 43 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 44 Krzysztof Krzywy (Pol) Action ATI 45 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto-Domo 46 Glenn d'Hollander (Bel) Lotto-Domo 47 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner 48 Mark De Maar (Ned) Rabobank TT III 49 Sergeï Krushevskiy (Uzb) Oktos-Saint Quentin 50 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 51 Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Action ATI 52 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, le credit par Telephone 53 Nicolas Portal (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 54 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 55 Guillaume Auger (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 3.54 56 Christophe Oriol (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 57 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Crédit Agricole 6.12 58 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 59 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Lotto-Domo 60 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Russian National Team Final general classification 1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com 12.54.56 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 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Domo 6 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank TT III 7 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 8 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 9 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 10 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 11 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 12 Benjamin Levecot (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 13 Andrey Ptchelkin (Rus) Russian National Team 14 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Lokomotiv 15 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 16 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 0.24 17 Bastiaan Giling (Ned) Rabobank TT III 2.26 18 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 3.43 19 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 3.59 20 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Russian National Team 4.42 21 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto-Domo 6.01 22 David Boucher (Fra) Oktos-Saint Quentin 6.15 23 Christophe Oriol (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 9.19 24 Ben Day (Aus) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 9.48 25 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto-Domo 9.50 26 Krzysztof Krzywy (Pol) Action ATI 14.15 27 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 17.10 28 Laurent Brochard (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 17.11 29 Léonardo Duque (Col) Chocolade Jacques Wincor-Nixdorf 30 Pierre Bourquenoud (Swi) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 17.16 31 Jeremy Yates (NZl) Crédit Agricole 32 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo 33 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Auber 93 34 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 35 Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Action ATI 19.18 36 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner 37 Mark De Maar (Ned) Rabobank TT III 38 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Crédit Agricole 19.30 39 Sergeï Krushevskiy (Uzb) Oktos-Saint Quentin 19.31 40 Eric Berthou (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 19.43 41 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 20.57 42 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 21.31 43 David Breard (Fra) Auber 93 21.36 44 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 45 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 46 Christophe Rinero (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 22.05 47 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Crédit Agricole 23.37 48 Glenn d'Hollander (Bel) Lotto-Domo 23.38 49 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 25.44 50 Guillaume Auger (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover 26.11 51 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Lotto-Domo 26.29 52 Saulius Ruskys (Ltu) Oktos-Saint Quentin 30.36 53 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 30.58 54 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 31.24 55 Laurent Paumier (Fra) Auber 93 31.36 56 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 33.38 57 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 58 Nicolas Portal (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 59 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, le credit par Telephone 60 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Russian National Team 36.29 Courtesy of velomania.net
