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Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Pays de la Loire - 2.1
France, April 8-11, 2008
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Stage 1 - April 8: Aizenay - Ligné, 182.4km
Ravard strikes on home soil
By Jean-François Quénet in Ligné
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Surprise at the Circuit de la Sarthe, where sprinter Anthony Ravard from Agritubel won stage 1 in front of Thomas Voeckler at the end of a two-man breakaway. The duo looked to have absolutely no chance to make it, with only a 14-second lead, 21 kilometres before the finish. They gave it all while the peloton slowed down because of a crash involving Slipstream's Chris Sutton and Française des Jeux's Jérôme Coppel. Therefore, the French team involved in the chase slowed down and they did it again a bit later when their sprinter Yauheni Hutarovitch had a flat tyre. At the same time, there was too much talking in the bunch between the teams of the sprinters, Voeckler told Ravard with 20 kilometres to go that "It's time to go flat out now!"
"We're good mates in life and for training", the former yellow jersey of the 2004 Tour de France explained about his ex-team-mate at Bouygues Telecom. "So we didn't have to argue about working together. Being in a breakaway, it's not smart to give all his energy away from the start. In fact, we saved a lot for the final 20 kilometers. I did most of the work at the end. I've never beaten Anthony in a sprint in training, so I knew he wouldn't lose again today."
Ravard was a triple stage winner at the 2.2 Tour of Normandy last month and he promised himself to win something at a higher level in April. He couldn't choose a better race since the end of stage 1 in the Circuit de la Sarthe was located less than 10 kilometres of his village of Nort-sur-Erdre.
"I really wanted to win here," he said. "A few family members and friends have passed away in the recent past, so I wanted to win for them." That included his mother, who passed away less than two years ago, something that has affected his cycling career. Last year, for his first season with Agritubel, he suffered from his sciatic nerve problems. "It's all resolved now," Ravard commented. "I also got myself followed by a psychiatric specialist, I found a good physiotherapist and a new coach in the person of our directeur sportif Frédéric Mainguenaud. That explains my best early season so far in my career. It's extraordinary. It gives me the ambition to make the Tour de France team for the first time."
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He made no mystery that the dialogue with Voeckler has helped to build the stage win. "The peloton was playing with us, they wanted to catch us as late as possible, but we also played with them. We didn't go flat out before the final 20 kilometres. Then, in the last 700 metres, it was good that Thomas was racing for GC, we didn't watch each other before the sprint."
"I've never beaten Anthony in a sprint at training, so...," said Voeckler after he earned his second place behind Ravard.
Can Voeckler win the Circuit de la Sarthe with the advance he might still have before the nine-kilometre individual time trial scheduled in Angers on Wednesday afternoon after the traditional morning stage that usually ends up in a bunch sprint? Last year he won the Tour de Poitou-Charentes that way.
"I would have liked to have a bit more advance," Voeckler said. His cushion is 21 seconds now. His main rivals will be specialist Vladimir Gusev (Astana), although the Russian time trial champion crashed heavily on Sunday at the Tour of Flanders; French champion Benoît Vaugrenard, who showed good form, coming second in the Route Adélie on Friday; Slipstream's Christian Vandevelde and Voeckler's team-mate Stef Clement, who is the Dutch champion and the bronze medalist at the world championship in Stuttgart last year.
How it unfolded
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After 15 kilometres, Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) went away solo because he wanted to pass first in front of his house in Mouilleron-le-Captif. He was 1'30 ahead when Anthony Ravard (Agritubel) attacked from the bunch at kilometre 30. The duo was formed at kilometre 40 with an advantage of 2'55.
Voeckler and Ravard got a maximum lead of 9'22 after the first hot spot sprint at kilometre 57. After that, the gap decreased slowly. Française des Jeux paced in front of the bunch, as well as Crédit Agricole, before CSF-Navigare took charge of the chase.
The two men only had a 27-second lead on the finishing line with four laps of seven kilometres each to go. On the second passage, it was only 14 seconds but on the third one, it went up to 45 seconds. They kept 20 seconds with three kilometres to go into the last lap and Ravard easily won the sprint over Voeckler. He also took the first yellow jersey of the 56th Circuit de la Sarthe.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Jean-François Quénet / Cyclingnews
- Only one fan club was present at the end of stage one... that of stage winner Anthony Ravard (Agritubel).
- A happy stage winner, Anthony Ravard (Agritubel) at home
- Anthony Ravard (Agritubel) leads the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of Thomas Voeckler
- Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) was named the most agressive rider
Results
1 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Agritubel 4.49.45 (39.220 km/h) 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 3 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Crédit Agricole 0.06 4 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Agritubel 5 Ariel Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) CSF Group Navigare 6 René Weissinger (Ger) Team Volksbank 7 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux 8 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 9 Daniel Musiol (Ger) Team Volksbank 10 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 11 Jean Eudes Demaret (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 12 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 13 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93 14 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 15 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano 16 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 17 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 18 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 19 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 20 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) Caisse d'Epargne 21 Florent Brard (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 22 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 23 Leonardo Giordani (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 24 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 25 Julian Dean (NZl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 26 Maurizio Biondo (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 27 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 28 Markus Zberg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 29 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 30 Nicolas Hartmann (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 31 Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 32 Umberto Nardecchia (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 33 Stef Clement (Ned) Bouygues Telecom 34 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Gerolsteiner 35 Tiziano dall'Antonia (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 36 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 37 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 38 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole 39 Philipp Ludescher (Aut) Team Volksbank 40 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 41 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 42 Thomas Frei (Swi) Astana 43 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 44 Thierry Hupond (Fra) Skil-Shimano 45 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 46 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 47 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Auber 93 48 Adriano Angeloni (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 49 Ronny Scholz (Ger) Gerolsteiner 50 Paride Grillo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 51 Cédric Pineau (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 52 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel 53 Albert Timmer (Ned) Skil-Shimano 54 Andrey Mizurov (Kaz) Astana 55 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 56 Matteo Priamo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 57 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux 58 Mathias Frank (Swi) Gerolsteiner 59 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel 60 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 61 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 62 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 63 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 64 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 65 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Astana 66 Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Française des Jeux 67 Benoît Poilvet (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 68 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole 69 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93 70 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 71 Daniel Martin (Irl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 72 Ignas Konovalovas (Ltu) Crédit Agricole 73 Florian Stalder (Swi) Team Volksbank 74 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux 75 Berik Kupeshov (Kaz) Astana 76 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 77 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 78 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 79 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 80 Kilian Patour (Fra) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 81 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel 82 Francesco Tomei (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 83 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 84 Jin Long (Chn) Skil-Shimano 85 Sylvain Calzatti (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 86 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 87 Francesco De Bonis (Ita) Gerolsteiner 88 Filippo Savini (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 89 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93 90 John Gadret (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 91 Cycril Lemoine (Fra) Crédit Agricole 92 Andreas Dietziker (Swi) Team Volksbank 93 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Team Volksbank 0.53 94 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil-Shimano 4.33 95 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 9.54 96 Patrick McCarthy (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 13.01 General classification after stage 1 1 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Agritubel 4.49.29 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 0.01 3 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Crédit Agricole 0.18 4 Paride Grillo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 0.19 5 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Agritubel 0.22 6 Ariel Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) CSF Group Navigare 7 René Weissinger (Ger) Team Volksbank 8 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux 9 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 10 Daniel Musiol (Ger) Team Volksbank 11 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 12 Jean Eudes Demaret (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 13 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 14 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93 15 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 16 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 17 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 18 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 19 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 20 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) Caisse d'Epargne 21 Florent Brard (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 22 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 23 Leonardo Giordani (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 24 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 25 Julian Dean (NZl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 26 Maurizio Biondo (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 27 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 28 Markus Zberg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 29 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 30 Nicolas Hartmann (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 31 Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 32 Umberto Nardecchia (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 33 Stef Clement (Ned) Bouygues Telecom 34 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Gerolsteiner 35 Tiziano dall'Antonia (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 36 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 37 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 38 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole 39 Philipp Ludescher (Aut) Team Volksbank 40 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 41 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 42 Thomas Frei (Swi) Astana 43 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux 44 Thierry Hupond (Fra) Skil-Shimano 45 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 46 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 47 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Auber 93 48 Adriano Angeloni (Ita) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 49 Ronny Scholz (Ger) Gerolsteiner 50 Cédric Pineau (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 51 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel 52 Albert Timmer (Ned) Skil-Shimano 53 Andrey Mizurov (Kaz) Astana 54 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 55 Matteo Priamo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 56 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux 57 Mathias Frank (Swi) Gerolsteiner 58 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel 59 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 60 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 61 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 62 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 63 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 64 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Astana 65 Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Française des Jeux 66 Benoît Poilvet (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 67 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole 68 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93 69 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 70 Daniel Martin (Irl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 71 Ignas Konovalovas (Ltu) Crédit Agricole 72 Florian Stalder (Swi) Team Volksbank 73 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux 74 Berik Kupeshov (Kaz) Astana 75 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 76 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 77 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 78 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 79 Kilian Patour (Fra) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 80 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel 81 Francesco Tomei (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 82 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 83 Sylvain Calzatti (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 84 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 85 Francesco De Bonis (Ita) Gerolsteiner 86 Filippo Savini (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 87 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93 88 John Gadret (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 89 Cycril Lemoine (Fra) Crédit Agricole 90 Andreas Dietziker (Swi) Team Volksbank 91 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano 0.42 92 Jin Long (Chn) Skil-Shimano 93 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Team Volksbank 1.09 94 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil-Shimano 4.49 95 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 10.10 96 Patrick McCarthy (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 13.17 Mountains 1 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Agritubel 12 pts 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 6 3 Thomas Frei (Swi) Astana 1 4 Filippo Savini (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 1 5 Cycril Lemoine (Fra) Crédit Agricole 1 Points 1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 35 pts 2 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Agritubel 34 3 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Crédit Agricole 16 4 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Agritubel 14 5 Ariel Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) CSF Group Navigare 12 6 René Weissinger (Ger) Team Volksbank 10 7 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux 9 8 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 8 9 Daniel Musiol (Ger) Team Volksbank 7 10 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 6 11 Jean Eudes Demaret (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 5 12 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 4 13 Paride Grillo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 3 14 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93 3 15 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 2 16 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano 1 U23 Classification 1 Nicolas Hartmann (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.50.07 2 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Gerolsteiner 3 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole 4 Philipp Ludescher (Aut) Team Volksbank 5 Thomas Frei (Swi) Astana 6 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Auber 93 7 Cédric Pineau (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 8 Albert Timmer (Ned) Skil-Shimano 9 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux 10 Mathias Frank (Swi) Gerolsteiner 11 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2r - La Mondiale 12 Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Française des Jeux 13 Daniel Martin (Irl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 14 Ignas Konovalovas (Ltu) Crédit Agricole 15 Berik Kupeshov (Kaz) Astana 16 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 17 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 18 Francesco Tomei (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 19 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 20 Filippo Savini (Ita) CSF Group Navigare 21 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano 0.20 22 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil-Shimano 4.27 Team classification 1 Bouygues Telecom 14.29.27 2 Agritubel 3 Team Volksbank 0.06 4 Caisse d'Epargne 5 Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 6 Crédit Agricole 7 Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 8 Gerolsteiner 9 CSF Group Navigare 10 Bretagne Armor Lux 11 Francaise Des Jeux 12 Skil - Shimano 13 Astana 14 AG2r - La Mondiale 15 Auber 93 16 Slipstream Chipotle
