58th Paris-Bourges - 1.1

France, October 9, 2008

2007 Results Results Past winners

Eisel adds one more for Columbia

Pineau bags the Coupe de France

By Jean-François Quénet

Bouygues Telecom's Jérôme Pineau was crowned the winner of the 2008 French Cup at Paris-Bourges, but another Pineau, Cédric - who is not related to him and rides for AG2R - remained a threat for the day's win until careful analysis of the photo-finish the win proved Team Columbia's Bernhard Eisel the fastest for the day. Cédric Pineau was awarded second place.

Eisel showed himself the fastest of a five-man breakaway. As the French teams made their calculations for the French Cup overall, no team chased hard enough to reel in the escaped leaders. Bouygues Telecom knew it only had to prevent Agritubel's David Le Lay from finishing first or second in order to take the Cup, and Française des Jeux was playing for a team win.

"I didn't think it would be the winning breakaway, but I believed it could be when we reached a 13-minute lead," said Eisel who was impressed by the speed at the beginning of the race, which covered 48 kilometers during the first hour. Taking the final sprint victory was more difficult than Austrian Eisel expected, but in the end, he earned what was his second success of the year after a stage at the Tour of Algarve in February.

A famous sprinter himself, Eisel is now more dedicated to leading out his teammates, notably Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France.

Eventual third place Anthony Charteau had missed the Tour de France due to injury, but the winner of the 2007 Le Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia is in good form at the end of this season. While many riders felt tired at Paris-Bourges after last weekend's rainy Circuit Franco-Belge or Tour de Vendée, Charteau is still so motivated that he'll defend the colours of Caisse d'Épargne until the very end the Chrono des Nations on October 19 in his province of Vendée in the west of France.

"I was feeling very good in the final today," Charteau said. "But unfortunately the climbs were situated too far from the finish, and in the sprint, Eisel, who is a specialist, was unbeatable. I have no regrets, and I am very optimistic for Paris-Tours which will take place on Sunday."

With Paris-Tours coming up in three days, the peloton seemed to lack the motivation to chase the riders in the break.

How it unfolded

After 20 kilometers, six riders broke clear: Cédric Pineau (AG2R), Anthony Charteau (Caisse d'Épargne), Nicolas Hartmann (Cofidis), Bernhard Eisel (Columbia), Benjamin Gourgue (Landbouwkrediet) and Antoine Dalibard (Bretagne-Armor Lux).

Sébstien Minard (Cofidis) and William Bonnet (Crédit Agricole) tried to bridge the gap but didn't make it. After 50km of racing, the six leaders had five minutes advantage. After 100km, they reached their maximum lead of 13 minutes and it was still the same with 50km to go. Gourgue got dropped 44km before the finish.

Pineau tried to go solo with 4km to go but the five remaining leaders sprinted together for the win. Eisel was the fastest but Pineau was so close that examination of the photo-finish was needed to determine the winner.

Results - 194.3km

1 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Columbia                                   3.35.54
2 Cédric Pineau (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
3 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
4 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux
5 Nicolas Hartmann (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux                               5.26
7 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
7 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
9 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Mitsubishi-Jartazi                               5.41
11 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Agritubel
12 Steve Chainel (Fra) Auber 93
13 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale
14 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
15 Steven Caethoven (Bel) Agritubel
16 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
17 Kristof Goddaert (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
18 David Boucher (Fra) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
19 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux
20 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux
21 Franck Rénier (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
22 Gael Malacarne (Fra) Bretagne Armor Lux
23 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra) Française des Jeux
24 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux
25 William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole
26 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
27 Yohann Gène (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
28 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93
29 Christian Poos (Lux) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances
30 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux
31 Dieter Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
32 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
33 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
34 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber 93
35 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Mitsubishi-Jartazi
36 Anders Lund (Den) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
37 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
38 Gert Dockx (Bel) Team Columbia
39 Bert De Waele (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
40 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
41 Jelle Hanseeuw (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
42 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
43 Jarno Gmelich (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Elshof
44 Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
45 Florian Guillou (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
46 Nicolas Rousseau (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
47 Stijn Vandenbergh (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
48 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Crédit Agricole
49 Benoît Joachim (Lux) Astana
50 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux
51 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel
52 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
53 Sébastien Harbonnier (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances
54 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Française des Jeux
55 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
56 Fredrik Johansson (Swe) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances
57 Gregory Habeaux (Bel) Mitsubishi-Jartazi
58 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Crédit Agricole
59 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
60 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
61 Johan Coenen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
62 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
63 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
64 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
65 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
66 Joost Van Leijen (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Elshof
67 Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
68 Michael Schär (Swi) Astana
69 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
70 Florent Brard (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
71 Aaron Kemps (Aus) Astana
72 Andreas Klier (Ger) Team Columbia
73 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Agritubel
74 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
75 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel
76 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Mitsubishi-Jartazi
77 Kasper Klostergaard Larsen (Den) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
78 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
79 Piotr Zielinski (Pol) Bretagne - Armor Lux
80 Roger Hammond (GBr) Team Columbia
81 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel
82 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit Agricole
83 Gregory Rast (Swi) Astana
84 Sébastien Minard (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
85 Rikke Dijkxhoorn (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Elshof
86 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
87 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
88 Steven Tronet (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
89 Servais Knaven (Ned) Team Columbia
90 Manman Van Ruitenbeek (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Elshof
91 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
92 Julien Simon (Fra) Crédit Agricole
93 David Lelay (Fra) Agritubel
94 Vicente Reynes Mimo (Spa) Team Columbia
95 Laurent Mangel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
96 Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Française des Jeux
97 Koen De Kort (Ned) Astana
98 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux
99 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93
100 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
101 Morten Knudsen (Den) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances
102 Paul Brousse (Fra) A-Style Somn
103 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne
104 Sébastien Fournet-Fayard (Fra) A-Style Somn
105 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Auber 93
106 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux
107 Lars Vierbergen (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Elshof
108 Bastien Delrot (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
109 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
110 Alexandre Aulas (Fra) A-Style Somn
111 Pierre Cazaux (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
112 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
113 Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana
114 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Crédit Agricole
115 Hannes Blank (Ger) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances
116 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia
117 Yann Huguet (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
118 Kevin Ista (Bel) Agritubel
119 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93
120 Jonathan Thire (Fra) Auber 93

Past winners

2007 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
2006 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
2005 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Team CSC
2004 Jerome Pineau (Fra) Brioches la Boulangere
2003 Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole
2002 Allan Johansen (Den) EDS-fakta
2001 Florent Brard (Fra) Festina
2000 Laurent Brochard (Fra)
1999 Daniele Nardello (Ita)
1998 Ludo Dierckxsens (Bel)
1997 Laurent Roux (Fra)
1996 Tristan Hoffman (Ned)
1995 Daniele Nardello (Ita)
1994 Lars Michaelsen (Den)
1993 Bruno Cornillet (Fra)
1991 Andrej Tchmil (Rus)
1990 Laurent Jalabert (Fra)
1988 Patrice Esnault (Fra)
1987 Kim Andersen (Den)
1986 Domenique Lecrocq (Fra)
1985 Niki Rüttimann (Swi)
1983 Stephen Roche (Ire)
1982 Didier Vanoverschelde (Fra)
1981 Francis Castaing (Fra)
1980 Yves Hézard (Fra)
1979 Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra)
1978 Regis Ovion (Fra)
1977 Regis Delepine (Fra)
1976 Jean-Paul Molineris (Fra)
1975 Jean-Paul Danguilaume (Fra)
1974 Barry Hoban (GB)
1973 A. Berland (Fra)
1972 Cyril Guimard (Fra)
1971 Walter Ricci (Fra)
1957 Raymond Guegan (Fra)
1956 Joseph Morvan (Fra)
1955 Jean-Marie Cieleska (Fra)
1954 Jean Stablinski (Fra)
1953 Robert Varnajo (Fra)
1952 Stanislas Bober (Fra)
1951 Jean-Marie Goasmat (Fra)
1950 Armand Audaire (Fra)
1949 Marcel Dussault (Fra)
1948 Marcel Dussault (Fra)
1947 Albert Bourlon (Fra)
1925 Deschamps (Fra)
1924 Marcel Bidot (Fra)
1923 Jean Brunier (Fra)
1922 Marcel Godart (Fra)
1917 Charles Juseret (Bel)
1913 Marceau Narcy (Fra)


Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com