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20th Route Adélie - 1.1
Vitré, France, March 31, 2006
2005 Results Results Past winners
Dumoulin does the business for a solo win
By Jean-François Quénet in Vitré
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Known as a decent sprinter, Samuel Dumoulin had previously never won a pro race on his own until today, when he attacked with 1.5km to go and won the 20th edition of the Route Adélie, held in Vitré
The rue de Brest was packed with cycling enthusiasts watching the world's smallest pro rider claiming his first win this year. Despite crowds gathering for anti-governmental protests, which delayed the start by half an hour, the mood was good among those present. The fourth leg of the French cup, Route Adelie was a chance for Chris Sutton (Cofidis), the winner of Cholet-Pays de Loire two weeks ago, to consolidate his lead in the series. He was up against young American Taylor Tolleson of TIAA-CREF, Hans Dekkers (Agritubel) and Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Jean Floc'h) and Brian Vandborg (CSC), who all formed the early break of the race. Their lead reached a maximum of 4:55 and still maintained a 1:45 advantage at when the race started the finish laps in Vitré after 120km.
Duret was impressive as he kept counter-attacking, along with Alberto Martinez (Agritubel), Camille Bouquet (Unibet.com), Niels Brouzes (Auber 93), Aitor Galdos (Panaria) and his team-mate David Lelay of local team Bretagne-Jean Floc'h. The next breakaway comprised 2004 winner of the Route Adélie Anthony Geslin (Bouygues Telecom), Lilian Jégou (Française des Jeux) and Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) in addition to Galdos, Martinez and Lelay, and also Laurens Ten Dam (Unibet.com) who came across before paying for his efforts at the end.
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The three French riders were fast finishers, a situation that didn't provide Dumoulin with any guarantees of winning. But he played his cards right and made the race his. "He has been very smart anticipating the sprint with 1.5km to go", said Geslin after the finish. "I knew Lilian and Anthony but I wasn't too sure about the other's sprinting abilities, Dumoulin explained after his win. That's why I preferred to attack. Since I never won solo as a pro, I wanted to see how it feels and it's great, although I didn't win by a big margin."
This win came as a relief for the AG2R team, who had a very successful start to the year with Dumoulin and Co helping Simon Gerrans win the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under, but they have been quiet since Renaud Dion claimed the Samyn Memorial on March 1st. "I felt frustrated, maybe our ambitions were a bit too high at Paris-Nice, but we have raced very well as a team today", a very satisfied Dumoulin explained after the finish. "We have taken our responsibilities when it was time to chase."
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Another notable performance came from Chris 'CJ; Sutton. Not only did he race for 140km in the front, he was still able to muster a sprint for 8th place at the finish. "When I got caught, I was close to being dropped, then I felt comfortable in the bunch again, said the Australian. "I got chopped on the pavés before the final sprint, unfortunately. I could have had a better result today but there are other races to come." He'll line up in Rennes on Sunday (if French roads finally get cleared by demonstrators), at the Circuit de la Sarthe and Paris-Roubaix next week, a race programme that shows a lot of confidence from his Cofidis team at an early stage. By finishing 15th at the Route Adélie, he scored three points that put him alone in first position on the French Cup standings, where he's also the best young rider. A very promising one, indeed!
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Régis Garnier/www.velofotopro.com
- There were three Estonians in the peloton today - Andrus Aug, Erki Putsep and René Mandri
- Where do you go?
- It was fun, fun ,fun to ride today...
- Paride Grillo and Brett Lancaster were in France for a bit of racing.
- You know, my friends and I want to win today in the Route Adélie.
- Mathieu Ladagnous waits for the start
- 400 students stopped the start of the race for 30 minutes. There have been many demonstrations in France due to new government regulations.
- The escape of the day with Dekkers (Agritubel), Sutton (Cofidis), Duret (Jean Floch) and Taylor Tolleson (TIAA-CREF)
- Moises Duenas (Agritubel)
- The peloton
- The escape takes off after Brian Vandborg (Team CSC)
- Bouygues Telecom heads up the peloton...
- The peloton in the country on quite a windy day
- Another escape with Martinez (Agritubel), Brouzes (Auber) and Bouquet (Unibet) amongst the ranks
- Samuel Dumoulin wins (AG2R) and he looks very happy about it
- The sprint is won by AG2R's Samuel Dumoulin
- Samuel Dumoulin is congratulate by Renaud Dion his teammate
- Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R) grabs another win for AG2R in 2006
- Anthony Geslin finished third
- The podium (l-r): Aitor Galdos Alonso, Samuel Dumoulin and Anthony Geslin
- Geoffroy Lequatre and Kilian Patour are good friends, and wait here for the start
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- Chris Sutton is now famous in west of France after having won Cholet-Pays de Loire two weeks ago
- The various winners (l-r): Anthony Geslin (3rd), Sébastien Duret (best climber), Samuel Dumoulin (race winner), Chris Sutton (leader of the French cup), Aitor Galdos (2nd) and Moises Duenas (best young rider) were the heroes of the day
- Chris Sutton is now sole leader in the French Cup
- Aggressive Breton rider Sébastien Duret won the king of the mountain price
- And the winner is... the smallest guy in the bunch
- Ian McLeod is happy to finally begin his 2006 season after a knee injury
- Samuel Dumoulin was quite talkative after claiming his first win this year
- The Estonian club at the start with Auber 93's René Mandri, veteran Andrus Aug of Acqua e Sapone and Erki Pütsep from winning team Ag2r
Results - 191 km
1 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 2 Aitor Galdos Alonso (Esp) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare 3 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 4 Lilian Jegou (Fra) Française Des Jeux 5 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 6 Alberto Martinez Trinidad José (Esp) Agritubel 7 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.Com 8 Mirko Allegrini (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare 9 Moises Duenas (Esp) Agritubel 10 Erki Pütsep (Est) Ag2R Prevoyance 11 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française Des Jeux 12 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 13 Saïd Haddou (Fra) Auber 93 14 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 15 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis 16 Franck Renier (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 17 Camille Bouquet (Fra) Unibet.Com 18 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 19 Renaud Dion (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 20 Cédric Herve (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 21 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Française Des Jeux 22 Cedric Coutouly (Fra) Agritubel 23 Arkadiusz Wojtas (Pol) Miche 24 Freddy Gonzalez (Col) Selle Italia - Serramenti Diquigiovanni 25 William Bonnet (Fra) Credit Agricole 26 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Credit Agricole 27 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 28 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 29 Bo Hamburger (Den) Miche 30 Julien Mazet (Fra) Auber 93 31 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) Unibet.Com 32 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Credit Agricole 33 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Agritubel 34 Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française Des Jeux 35 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93 36 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang 37 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 38 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Agritubel 39 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 40 Tyler Farrar (Usa) Cofidis 41 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis 42 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) Française Des Jeux 43 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Unibet.Com 44 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Cofidis 45 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team Csc 46 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare 47 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Selle Italia - Serramenti Diquigiovanni 48 Martin Pedersen (Den) Team Csc 49 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Française Des Jeux 50 Marc Marino Jean (Fra) Credit Agricole 51 Matheus Pronk (Ned) Unibet.Com 52 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 53 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc`H 54 Pasquale Muto (Ita) Miche 55 Philippe Schnyder (Sui) Selle Italia - Serramenti Diquigiovanni 56 Jérémy Roy (Fra) Française Des Jeux 57 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel 58 Maxime Mederel (Fra) Auber 93 59 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 60 Tanaka So (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang
French Cup standings 1 Chris Sutton (Aus) Cofidis 53pts 2 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance 50 3 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Cofidis 4 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Cofidis 5 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 45
Past winners
Route Adélie 2005 Daniele Contrini (Ita) Team LPR 2004 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 2003 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Jean Delatour 2002 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe) Team fakta 2001 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) 2000 Laurent Brochard (Fra) 1999 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) 1998 Jann Kirsipuu (Est) 1997 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Tour d'Armorique 1996 Marc Bouillon (Fra) 1994 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) 1993 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) 1992 Peter De Clercq (Bel) 1991 Jérôme Simon (Fra) 1990 Rober-to Torres (Spa) 1989 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) 1988 Sören Lilholt (Den) 1987 Thierry Marie (Fra) 1986 Jörg Müller (Swi) Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
