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Tour du Limousin - 2.1
France, August 21-24, 2007
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Stage 2 - August 22: Droux – Uzerche , 187.4 km
French big hope Pierre Rolland grabs first European success
Pierrick Fedrigo leads over Oscar Pereiro
By Jean-François Quénet in Uzerche
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It was a day in hell for the peloton but a day in paradise for French youngster Pierre Rolland from Crédit Agricole. The 20 year-old won stage two of the Tour du Limousin, prevailing in torrential rain and temperatures barely 12°C. Bouygues Telecom's Pierrick Fedrigo overtook Philippe Gilbert's lead in the general classification, while Oscar Pereiro, now 2nd on GC at 6 seconds, has clearly put himself in contention for the overall win.
"We were put under pressure from the start and we paid for the loss of Benoît Vaugrenard at the end, but the race isn't over yet", Gilbert said after the stage. He was in danger after 40 kilometers of racing because he had a flat tyre on a hill while attacks were going up the road, mainly with Pereiro, Fedrigo – who punctured as well – and French champion Christophe Moreau returning to competition at the Tour du Limousin after his post-Tour break.
Française des Jeux worked hard to bring back a breakaway of 22 riders. They got some help from Cofidis who had also missed the move. After a few moments of panic, the bunch was all together again at km 50. "I was in that break and as soon as we were getting caught, I attacked strongly again", Rolland explained. He went away with Guillaume Levarlet (Auber 93) who is on the edge of joining a ProTour team after showing himself in the front at all the races recently and Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Armor Lux) who also aims at a ride in a bigger squad after breaking away so many times.
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The gap for the leaders went up to seven minutes while FdJ controlled the situation behind the trio. With 30 km to go, Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) tried to go across, but on the Côte de Vigeois, with 19 km to go, Rolland went away solo in pursuit of the stage win. There was a superb attack in the bunch by Pereiro, Fedrigo and French cyclo-cross rider Clément L'Hotellerie of Skil-Shimano. FdJ was left without Sandy Casar, who was suffering from a back problem and without Vaugrenard. The on-form French time trial champion for was forced to pull out because of a crash with 70 km to go. While the team worked hard to bring the chasing three back before the finish, they were ultimately unsuccessful and were left with 17 seconds between the duo Fedrigo-Pereiro and Gilbert's group on the line. Since Duret and Augé had been brought back in the finale, Fedrigo grabbed 4 seconds bonus for 3rd place and became the new leader.
"I'm still bitter to have lost the Tour du Limousin by one second last year", said Fedrigo who had won the race in 2004. "It's never easy to win this race and I expect hard battles until the finish on Friday. I've had some ups and downs during the Tour de France. Now it's nice for me and my team to wear the yellow jersey here. I always come back to this race with high ambitions but I've noticed that Pereiro is also here to win. We got on well when we rode together to the finish today."
The uphill finish of Uzerche will be remembered as Rolland's first pro win in Europe. He had won a stage at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon for his pro debuts this year in January. "But this is the first real one," he said. "For one month, I've been close to winning but I placed myself 2nd, 4th, 7th… It was time to make it. It's an enormous joy to become a winner. It comes because of a lot of work. I've rarely done a race in such conditions. There wasn't a single meter of flat road. With the rain, the wind and the cold, we had no reason to ride faster than 36km/h average. I came here with the intention of winning a stage. It's been my luck to miss yesterday's breakaway."
Rolland is a very classy rider hailing from Orléans on the Loire river one hour south of Paris. This is a name to remember for the future.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- Française des Jeux was awarded as the best team at the start of stage 2
- Philippe Gilbert defended but lost the lead... for now
- Bradley Wiggins and CJ Sutton racing in cold and rainy center of France
- Guillaume Levarlet is an up and coming French rider. He was 2nd in stage 2.
- Pierre Rolland was a happy winner in Uzerche
Images by Régis Garnier/www.velofotopro.com
- Pierre Roland (Crédit-Agricole) wins stage 2.
- Pierre Roland (Crédit-Agricole) is very happy with his win.
Results
1 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole 5.04.14 (36.96 km/h) 2 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber 0.36 3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 2.53 4 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 5 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil - Shimano 2.55 6 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance 3.10 7 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 9 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 10 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 11 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 12 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 13 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux 14 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 15 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 16 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole 17 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 18 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 19 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 20 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 21 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 22 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 23 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team 24 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 25 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 26 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 27 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 28 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel 3.17 29 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel - Action 30 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team 31 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole 32 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 33 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber 34 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 35 Tanel Kangert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 36 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 37 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel - Action 38 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 39 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 40 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 41 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel 42 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 43 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Auber 44 David Deroo (Fra) Skil - Shimano 45 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel 46 Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Fra) French National Team 47 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team 48 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 49 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 50 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom 3.31 51 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 3.46 52 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.15 53 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 4.21 54 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 55 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 4.23 56 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.24 57 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel 4.27 58 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 4.58 59 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber 5.31 60 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel - Action 5.43 61 Carl Naïbo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 5.50 62 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 63 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel 6.12 64 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 65 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 6.20 66 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 67 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 68 Kazuki Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 69 Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux 6.29 70 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 6.39 71 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team 7.05 72 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole 8.24 73 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 9.35 74 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 10.57 75 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 76 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 13.09 77 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 78 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil - Shimano 79 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 80 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 81 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel - Action 83 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 84 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 85 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 86 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team 87 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team 13.14 88 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 13.23 89 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 90 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 91 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 13.24 92 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel 93 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 18.56 94 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 95 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel - Action 20.57 96 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel - Action DNF Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom DNF Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux DNF Francesco Bellotti (Ita) Crédit Agricole DNF Maxime Bouet (Fra) French National Team DNF Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Roubaix Lille Metropole DNF Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil - Shimano DNF Jin Long (Chn) Skil - Shimano DNF Fang Xu (Chn) Skil - Shimano DNF Yoshimasa Hirose (Jpn) Skil - Shimano DNF Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle DNF Alex Howes (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle DNF Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle Teams 1 Crédit Agricole 15.19.02 2 Auber 93 0.43 3 Bouygues Telecom 2.53 4 Caisse d'Epargne 5 Bretagne-Armor Lux 3.10 6 Agritubel 3.17 7 AG2r Prévoyance 8 Française des Jeux 9 Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 3.24 10 French National Team 11 Roubaix Lille Metropole 4.30 12 Intel - Action 5.57 13 Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada 12.40 14 Skil-Shimano 13.01 15 Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 22.25 General classification after stage 2 1 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 8.56.38 2 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.06 3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 0.12 4 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil - Shimano 0.17 5 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.27 6 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux 0.57 7 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole 1.03 8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 1.05 9 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 10 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 11 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 1.08 12 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole 1.10 13 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 1.12 14 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 1.15 15 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 16 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel 17 Carl Naïbo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 3.51 18 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 6.25 19 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole 8.25 20 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber 9.07 21 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 9.21 22 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 11.10 23 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 11.15 24 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance 11.48 25 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 11.50 26 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 27 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 28 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 29 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 30 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team 31 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 32 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 33 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 34 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 35 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 36 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 37 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber 11.57 38 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel - Action 39 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 40 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Auber 41 Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Fra) French National Team 42 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel 43 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 44 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 45 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel 46 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 47 David Deroo (Fra) Skil - Shimano 48 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 49 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 50 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel - Action 51 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 52 Tanel Kangert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 53 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team 54 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team 12.07 55 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom 12.10 56 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 12.22 57 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 12.55 58 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 13.01 59 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 60 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 13.03 61 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 13.04 62 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 13.35 63 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 13.38 64 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel - Action 14.23 65 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 14.30 66 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel 14.52 67 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 15.00 68 Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux 15.09 69 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 15.19 70 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team 15.45 71 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole 17.04 72 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 19.37 73 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 74 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team 21.49 75 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 76 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 77 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 78 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 79 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 80 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 81 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team 21.54 82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel - Action 21.59 83 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 22.03 84 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 85 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 86 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel 22.04 87 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 88 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 27.36 89 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 90 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel - Action 29.37 91 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel - Action 92 Kazuki Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 32.07 93 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel 35.10 94 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber 36.14 95 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada 37.03 96 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil - Shimano 38.56 Team classification 1 Crédit Agricole 26.49.00 2 Française des Jeux 2.41 3 Bouygues Telecom 3.05 4 Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 8.19 5 Caisse d'Epargne 13.40 6 Bretagne-Armor Lux 14.38 7 AG2r Prévoyance 14.51 8 Agritubel 25.30 9 Auber 33.38 10 France 36.19 11 Roubaix Lille Metropole 37.25 12 Intel - Action 38.52 13 Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada 44.10 14 Skil-Shimano 51.45 15 Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle 55.20
