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Photo ©: Bettini

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Tour du Limousin - 2.1

France, August 21-24, 2007

Main Page    Results   Overall standings     Next Stage

Stage 1 - August 21: Limoges – La Souterraine , 160.8 km

A relief for Philippe Gilbert

By Jean-François Quénet

Philippe Gilbert (FdJ)
Photo ©: Régis Garnier
(Click for larger image)

Last year's winner of Belgian opening classic Het Volk Philippe Gilbert had been forced to wait for eight months before collecting his first win of the season, but it finally came on stage one in the Tour du Limousin. Gilbert outsprinted Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom), Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne), Clément L'Hôtellerie (Skil-Shimano) and Anthony Charteau (Crédit Agricole).

The Belgian from Française des Jeux had a rough summer: he suffered a virus during the Tour de France, and then was a non-starter in the Pyrénées after a day in hell alone in front of the broom wagon. He recovered well enough to claim the silver medal in the Belgian time trial championship despite a crash in the finale. All of those pains were lifted as he raised his arms in victory, except for one which became apparent during his victory salute. "My shoulder is still painful", he said after winning in La Souterraine.

The day was full of attacks at the beginning of the stage but a group of 19 riders managed to break away. They made a gap of two minutes for themselves but the bunch came close just 15 seconds behind under the action of Bouygues Telecom, who wasn't happy to have only Fedrigo in the lead. As Jérôme Pineau jumped across, the move became 20 riders and coalesced into the move of the day with Fedrigo and Pineau (Bouygues Telecom), L'Hôtellerie (Skil-Shimano), Gilbert, Benoît Vaugrenard, Mickaël Delage and Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Charteau, Rémi Pauriol, Alexandre Botcharov and Patrice Halgand (Crédit Agricole), Sylvain Chavanel, Maryan Hary and Romain Villa (Cofidis), Pereiro and Joaquin Rodriguez (Caisse d'Epargne), David Le Lay and Yann Pivois (Bretagne-Armor Lux), Stéphane Goubert and Carl Naibo (Ag2r) and also Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel).

"With 18 kilometers to go, six of us went away," Gilbert explained. I was fortunate to have Benoît [time trial French champion Vaugrenard] with me. He did a superb job when he led me out 300 meters from the finishing. It wasn't an easy sprint to win. I felt Pereiro was really strong and Fedrigo is also a fast finisher. But I'm really happy with this win."

Tomorrow is another day. "We've got no plan as for now, Gilbert said. I don't know how possible it is to defend the lead. The course looks pretty tricky." The Tour du Limousin features four stages but no time trial for the 40th edition of the event held in the region of ever popular Raymond Poulidor who remains a local idol at the age of 71.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Régis Garnier/www.velofotopro.com

Results

1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux                           3.49.41 (42.057 km/h)
2 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                    
3 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                       
4 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                     
5 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                 
6 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                 0.05
7 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                     0.36
8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                   0.38
9 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux                                    
10 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole                                     
11 Oliver J. Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                
12 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                      
13 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                0.41
14 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                      
15 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                    
16 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel                                           
17 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                 0.44
18 Carl Naibo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                          
19 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                               0.48
20 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux                                  0.49
21 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                     2.29
22 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                    2.59
23 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada     9.58
24 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93                                         11.23
25 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                     
26 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Roubaix Lille Metropole                          
27 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                  
28 Maxime Bouet (Fra) French National Team                                   
29 Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                              
30 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team                             
31 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                   
32 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel                                             
33 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel                                             
34 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel-Action                                      
35 Jean Mespoulede (Fra) Auber 93                                            
36 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel-Action                                       
37 Fayard S. Fournet (Fra) French National Team                              
38 Maxime Mederel (Fra) Auber 93                                             
39 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel-Action                                          
40 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                      
41 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel                                               
42 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                              
43 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team                                     
44 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                          
45 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                               
46 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                     
47 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                       
48 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                       
49 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                      
50 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux                               
51 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber 93                                         
52 Arnaud Gerard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                    
53 Lilian Jegou (Fra) Française des Jeux                                     
54 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada              
55 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team                                     
56 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                     
57 David Deroo (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                            
58 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                          
59 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                  
60 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                     
61 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                     
62 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                       
63 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                
64 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                   
65 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                              
66 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel-Action                                        
67 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                               
68 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom                                     
69 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel                                             
70 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                       
71 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                    
72 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                         
73 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                      
74 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                      
75 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team                                 
76 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance                                      
77 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team                                   
78 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                 
79 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole                                 
80 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                             
81 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                     
82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel-Action                                       
83 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                 
84 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel                                          
85 Tanel Kangert (Est) AG2r Prévoyance                                       
86 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                   
87 Francesco Bellotti (Ita) Crédit Agricole                                  
88 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team                                   
89 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel-Action                                          
90 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                             
91 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                              
92 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux                               
93 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel                                             
94 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada        
95 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada       
96 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada      
97 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada          
98 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                          28.30
99 Kazuo Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada             
100 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber 93                                       33.26
101 Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                         
102 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada         
103 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel                                         
104 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                        
105 Fang Xu (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                               
106 Yoshimasa Hirose (Jpn) Skil-Shimano                                      
107 Alex Howes (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                            
108 Jin Long (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                         33.30
DNF Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                
DNF Stéphane Petilleau (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                              
DNF Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93                                         
DNF Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93                                           
DNF Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93                                           
DNF Frédéric Finot (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                             
DNF Steven Tronet (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                              
DNF Yukihiro Doi (Jpn) Skil-Shimano                                          
DNF Marcin Osinski (Pol) Intel-Action                                        
DNF Francois Parisien (Can) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                     
DNS Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Intel-Action                                      
 
General Classification after Stage 1
 
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux                           3.49.26
2 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                0.09
3 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                   0.11
4 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                 0.15
5 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                 
6 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                 0.20
7 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux                                0.45
8 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                     0.51
9 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole                                      
10 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                  0.53
11 Oliver J. Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                
12 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                      
13 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                0.56
14 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                      
15 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                    
16 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel                                           
17 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                 0.59
18 Carl Naibo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                          
19 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                               1.03
20 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux                                  1.04
21 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                     2.44
22 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                    3.11
23 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada    10.13
24 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber 93                                         11.38
25 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                     
26 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Roubaix Lille Metropole                          
27 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                  
28 Maxime Bouet (Fra) French National Team                                   
29 Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                              
30 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team                             
31 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                   
32 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel                                             
33 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel                                             
34 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel-Action                                      
35 Jean Mespoulede (Fra) Auber 93                                            
36 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel-Action                                       
37 Fayard S. Fournet (Fra) French National Team                              
38 Maxime Mederel (Fra) Auber 93                                             
39 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel-Action                                          
40 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                      
41 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel                                               
42 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                              
43 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team                                     
44 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                          
45 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                               
46 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                     
47 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                       
48 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                       
49 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                      
50 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux                               
51 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber 93                                         
52 Arnaud Gerard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                    
53 Lilian Jegou (Fra) Française des Jeux                                     
54 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada              
55 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team                                     
56 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                     
57 David Deroo (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                            
58 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                          
59 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                  
60 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                     
61 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                     
62 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                       
63 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                
64 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                   
65 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                              
66 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel-Action                                        
67 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                               
68 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom                                     
69 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel                                             
70 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                       
71 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                    
72 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                         
73 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                      
74 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                      
75 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team                                 
76 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance                                      
77 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team                                   
78 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                 
79 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole                                 
80 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                             
81 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                     
82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel-Action                                       
83 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux                                 
84 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel                                          
85 Tanel Kangert (Est) AG2r Prévoyance                                       
86 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                   
87 Francesco Bellotti (Ita) Crédit Agricole                                  
88 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team                                   
89 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel-Action                                          
90 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                             
91 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                              
92 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux                               
93 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel                                             
94 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada        
95 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada       
96 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada      
97 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada          
98 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                          28.45
99 Kazuo Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada             
100 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber 93                                       33.41
101 Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                         
102 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada         
103 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel                                         
104 Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil-Shimano                                        
105 Fang Xu (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                               
106 Yoshimasa Hirose (Jpn) Skil-Shimano                                      
107 Alex Howes (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle                            
108 Jin Long (Chn) Skil-Shimano                                         33.45