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26th GP de la Ville de Rennes - 1.1
France, April 3, 2005
2004 Results Results Past winners
Turpin opens the score for Ag2r
By Jean-François Quénet
No Frenchman had won the Grand Prix de Rennes since Pascal Chanteur did it in 1998 for Casino, the same team that is now Ag2r. Finally, after the following successes of Max van Heeswijk, Gordon Fraser, Davide Casarotto, Kirk O’Bee, Oleg Grishkine and Andrus Aug, Ludovic Turpin has made his directeur sportif Vincent Lavenu happy again. The 30 year-old rider hailing from Laval, only 80 km away from Rennes, has scored Ag2r’s first win for the 2005 season.
How it unfolded
A member of a front group of 19, Turpin wasn’t too impressed by Agritubel’s Gilles Canouët who put his arms up when he crossed the line - with one lap to go. His thoughts of having won the race were only based on what a motorbike driver had told him. With 1.5 km to go, another Frenchman, néo-pro Sébastien Duret of local team Bretagne-Jean Floc’h, broke clear, so did Auber 93’s Tristan Valentin behind him, but both had no choice but see a rocket overtaking them one by one, and that was Turpin.
His win will take a lot of stress out from the Ag2r ranks. The team had suffered the loss of Jaan Kirsipuu and Laurent Brochard and was left with no real captain this year. They also started the season with the frustration of not being a UCI Pro Tour team, although they secured a start for the Tour de France a long time before 2005 begun. Two of their leaders have missed a few important races because of long illnesses: Tour de France stage winner Jean-Patrick Nazon and Tour de l’Avenir winner Sylvain Calzati. They are back now, but still chasing the condition. "But we have always believed in the quality of our young guys", manager Vincent Lavenu said, taking the example of Aussie recruit Simon Gerrans who came 8th in the Brabantse Pijl after going away with riders like Oscar Freire, Axel Merckx or Nick Nuyens.
After his win on Friday at the Route Adélie, Italian Daniele Contrini completed his nice Breton week-end with a second place in Rennes. Behind Turpin, he also managed to go by himself and overtake Duret who gave the new continental team Bretagne-Jean Floc’h their first podium place at that level of cycling.
Results
1 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 4.21.56 2 Daniele Contrini (Ita) Team LPR 3 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 4 Jeff Louder (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 5 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 6 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Ceramica Panaria 7 Christophe Rinero (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 8 Gilles Canouet (Fra) Agritubel 9 Tristan Valentin (Fra) Auber 93 10 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 0.04 11 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 0.58 12 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria 1.09 13 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Team LPR 1.22 14 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93 15 Damien Nazon (Fra) Crédit Agricole 16 Jérémy Roy (Fra) Française des Jeux 17 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Agritubel 18 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 19 Julien Mazet (Fra) Auber 93 1.25 20 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Agritubel 3.46 21 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) AG2r Prévoyance 22 Ivan Fanelli (Ita) Team LPR 23 Cédric Hervé (Fra) Crédit Agricole 24 Laurent Paumier (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 25 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 26 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Crédit Agricole 3.51 27 Renaud Dion (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 28 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 29 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 30 Nicolas Inaudi (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 31 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 32 Saulius Ruskys (Ltu) Agritubel 33 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Française des Jeux 34 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 35 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 36 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Crédit Agricole 37 Nicholas Roche (Irl) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.07 38 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Française des Jeux 4.39 39 Graeme Brown (Aus) Ceramica Panaria 40 David Bréard (Fra) Auber 93 41 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 42 Ludovic Martin (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 43 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 44 Andris Nauduzs (Lat) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 45 Francesco Failli (Ita) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 46 Camille Bouquet (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 5.10
Past winners
2004 Andrus Aug (Est) Domina Vacanze 4.50.31
2003 Oleg Grishkine (Rus) Navigators Cycling Team 4.12.33 (44.9 km/h) 2002 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Navigators Cycling Team 4.23.10 2001 Davide Casarotto (Ita) Alessio 195.0 km in 4.28.22 2000 Gordon Fraser (Can) Mercury Cycling Team 183.4 km in 4.09.24 1999 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) Mapei-Quick Step 193.5 km in 4.15.17 1998 Pascal Chanteur (Fra) Casino 193.5 km in 4.35.10 1997 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Cofidis 197.5 km in 4.24.08 1997 (2) Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) 1996 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) 1995 Peter DeClerc (Bel) 1994 Gilles Delion (Fra) 1993 Eddy Seigneur (Fra) 1992 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) 1991 Kim Andersen (DK) 1990 Edwin Bafcob (Bel) 1989 JanBogaert (Bel) 1988 Ronan Pensec (Fra) 1987 Jean-Francois Bernard (Fra) 1986 Eric Boyer(Fra) 1985 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) 1984 Bruno Wojtinek (Fra) 1983 Domenique Arnaud (Fra) 1982 Jean-Francois Rault (Fra) Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
