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41st Tour du Limousin - 2.1
France, August 19-22, 2008
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 2 - August 20: Bellac - Bellac, 183km
Arashiro beats in-form Roche
By Gerard Cromwell
Japan's Yukiya Arashiro won the second stage ahead of Ireland's in-form Nicolas Roche. Australian Allan Davis finished third in the bunch sprint. Roche consolidated his overall lead in the four-day French stage race and is now 13 seconds ahead of Arashiro.
The young Irishman praised his Crédit Agricole outfit. "The team did an excellent ride for me today," Roche said afterwards. "The first 25 kilometres or so were hard for me, because I had such a long day in the front yesterday, and there were a lot of early attacks, but when the break went my team controlled it and I came around a bit."
The end was much more to Roche's liking. "Today was an uphill sprint finish, which is my strongest point. The Japanese guy just beat me in the last few metres. I'm a bit disappointed not to have won the stage because my team-mate Sebastian Hinault sacrificed himself for me in the sprint. It would have been fantastic to win two stages in two days, while wearing the yellow jersey, but I went too early and Sebastian just stayed on my wheel to try and stop people coming around me in the last few metres. He could have won the stage himself, so I'm disappointed with that. But I got a few more seconds overall. Tomorrow is a very hard day though, with a lot of climbs."
The mainly flat 183 kilometres around Bellac saw a four-man breakaway group containing Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne Armor Lux, Arnaud Gérard (Française des Jeux), Nicolas Jalabert (Agritubel) and Julien Mazet (Astana) go clear after 30 kilometres.
This quartet built up a maximum lead of 2'50, with Mazet going into the race lead on the road. Crédit Agricole with Gabriel Rasch and Cofidis with Maxime Monfort brought the gap down to under two minutes with 25 kilometres to go. Here, Frenchman Gérard attacked his breakaway companions in a last ditch bid for glory and hovered some 20 seconds ahead of the bunch for much of the remainder of the stage. Some strong riding on the front of the peloton by the Spanish Caisse D'Epargne team for their sprinter saw him reeled in as the field passed under the kilometre-to-go kite with the stage set for a bunch sprint finish.
Roche had signed a deal with AG2R La Mondiale just the night before. "I always liked AG2R," Roche said last night. "They are a similar team to Crédit Agricole. I haven't spoken about a race programme yet, but I would hope to ride the Tour de France with them in 2009."
Results
1 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 4.23.47 (41.625 km/h) 1 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 4.23.47 2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 3 Allan Davis (Bel) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 4 Steve Chainel (Fra) Auber 93 5 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit Agricole 6 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 7 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux 8 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93 9 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 10 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 11 Pierrick Fédrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 12 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 13 Mickaël Chérel (Fra) Française des Jeux 14 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 15 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole 16 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 17 Laurent Lefèvre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 18 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Astana 19 Janek Tombak (Est) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 20 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 21 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 22 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 23 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa) Astana 24 Miyataka Shimizu (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 25 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 26 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 27 Gregory Rast (Swi) Astana 28 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 29 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 30 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 31 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Crédit Agricole 32 Roman Kireyev (Kaz) Astana 33 Hannes Blank (Ger) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 34 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 35 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 36 Johan Coenen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 37 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Auber 93 38 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 39 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 40 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 41 Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez (Spa) Agritubel 42 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 43 Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 44 Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 45 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Agritubel 46 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 47 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 48 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 49 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 50 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel 51 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 52 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Française des Jeux 53 Kalle Kriit (Est) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 54 Piotr Zielinski (Pol) Bretagne - Armor Lux 55 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 56 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 57 Francis Mourey (Fra) Française des Jeux 58 Fredrik Johansson (Swe) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 59 Tanel Kangert (Est) AG2R La Mondiale 60 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 61 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 62 Sébastien Harbonnier (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 63 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 64 Steven Kleynen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 65 Bastien Delrot (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 66 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 67 Claude Wolter (Lux) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 68 Pierre Cazaux (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 69 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 70 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 71 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 72 Yohan Cauquil (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 73 Trent Lowe (Aus) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 74 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 75 Gabriel Rasch (Nor) Crédit Agricole 76 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber 93 77 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 78 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 79 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 80 Philip Deignan (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 81 Morten Knudsen (Den) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 82 Martial Ricci Poggi (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 83 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 84 Evert Verbist (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 85 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 0.23 86 Bart Vanheule (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 87 Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 0.25 88 David Boucher (Fra) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 0.28 89 Mathieu Drouilly (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 90 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 91 Kenny De Haes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 92 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 93 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra) Française des Jeux 94 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 95 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel 96 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93 0.34 97 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana 98 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0.49 99 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 100 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 101 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 102 Masaaki Kikuchi (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 103 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 104 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Crédit Agricole 105 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale 106 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 107 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 108 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 109 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 110 Alexandre Lemair (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 111 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 112 Jonathan Thire (Fra) Auber 93 0.57 113 Carl Naibo (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 1.27 114 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 115 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 3.09 DNF Denis Robin (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole Sprints Chateauneuf la Forêt (km 29.7) 1 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 3 pts 2 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 2 3 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 1 Bourganeuf (km 74.4) 1 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 3 pts 2 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 2 3 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 1 Gueret (114.7) 1 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 3 pts 2 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 2 3 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 1 Mountains Côte de St Amand 1 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 4 pts 2 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 2 3 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 1 Côte du Maupuy 1 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 6 pts 2 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 4 3 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 2 4 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 1 Côte du Peyroux 1 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 6 pts 2 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 4 3 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 2 4 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 1 Teams 1 Credit Agricole 13.11.21 2 Bouygues Telecom 3 Auber 93 4 Caisse d'Epargne 5 Francaise des Jeux 6 Mitsubishi Jartazi 7 Astana 8 Agritubel 9 Meitan Hompo - GDR 10 Topsports Vlaanderen 11 AG2R La Mondiale 12 Landbouwkrediet Tonissteiner 13 Garmin / Chipotle Presented By H30 14 Roubaix Lille Metropole 15 Differdange Apiflo Vacances 16 Bretagne Armor Lux General classification after stage 2 1 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 8.27.29 2 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 0.13 3 Steve Chainel (Fra) Auber 93 0.17 4 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 5 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 0.18 6 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.19 7 Allan Davis (Bel) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 8 Piotr Zielinski (Pol) Bretagne - Armor Lux 0.20 9 Hannes Blank (Ger) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 0.21 10 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.23 11 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 12 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 13 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 14 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Auber 93 15 Pierrick Fédrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 16 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 17 Mickaël Chérel (Fra) Française des Jeux 18 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole 19 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Astana 20 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 21 Laurent Lefèvre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 22 Miyataka Shimizu (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 23 Roman Kireyev (Kaz) Astana 24 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 25 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 26 Janek Tombak (Est) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 27 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Crédit Agricole 28 Gregory Rast (Swi) Astana 29 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Auber 93 30 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 31 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 32 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel 33 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 34 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 35 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 36 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa) Astana 37 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 38 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 39 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 40 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Agritubel 41 Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez (Spa) Agritubel 42 Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 43 Francis Mourey (Fra) Française des Jeux 44 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 45 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 46 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 47 Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 48 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 49 Bastien Delrot (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 50 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 51 Pierre Cazaux (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 52 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 53 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 54 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 1.08 55 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Crédit Agricole 1.12 56 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Française des Jeux 1.14 57 Kalle Kriit (Est) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 1.28 58 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 1.29 59 Johan Coenen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 60 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 61 Yohan Cauquil (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 62 Gabriel Rasch (Nor) Crédit Agricole 63 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 64 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 1.31 65 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 1.56 66 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 2.10 67 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 2.12 68 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 69 Fredrik Johansson (Swe) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 70 Tanel Kangert (Est) AG2R La Mondiale 71 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 72 Steven Kleynen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 73 Sébastien Harbonnier (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 74 Morten Knudsen (Den) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 75 Trent Lowe (Aus) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 76 Alexandre Lemair (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 2.18 77 Bart Vanheule (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 2.35 78 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 79 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 2.40 80 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel 81 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana 2.46 82 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 3.00 83 Martial Ricci Poggi (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 84 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 3.01 85 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 86 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 87 Jonathan Thire (Fra) Auber 93 3.09 88 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 3.14 89 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra) Française des Jeux 3.46 90 Claude Wolter (Lux) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 4.00 91 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber 93 92 Evert Verbist (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 93 Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 4.25 94 David Boucher (Fra) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 4.28 95 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 4.45 96 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 4.49 97 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 98 Carl Naibo (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 5.44 99 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 6.01 100 Philip Deignan (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 101 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 6.29 102 Masaaki Kikuchi (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 6.50 103 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 104 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux 7.21 105 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 106 Kenny De Haes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 7.49 107 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 8.10 108 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 8.25 109 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 8.48 110 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 10.30 111 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale 10.53 112 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Auber 93 11.56 113 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 12.11 114 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 13.19 115 Mathieu Drouilly (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 13.47 Points classification 1 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 7 pts 2 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 6 3 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 6 4 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 5 5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 4 6 Piotr Zielinski (Pol) Bretagne - Armor Lux 3 7 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 2 8 Hannes Blank (Ger) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 2 9 Kalle Kriit (Est) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 1 Mountains classification 1 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux 16 pts 2 Hannes Blank (Ger) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 12 3 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 8 4 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel 6 5 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 5 6 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 4 7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 3 Young rider classification 1 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Crédit Agricole 8.27.29 2 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 0.13 3 Piotr Zielinski (Pol) Bretagne - Armor Lux 0.20 4 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 0.23 5 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 6 Mickaël Chérel (Fra) Française des Jeux 7 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole 8 Roman Kireyev (Kaz) Astana 9 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Auber 93 10 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 11 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 12 Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 13 Bastien Delrot (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 14 Pierre Cazaux (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 15 Florian Morizot (Fra) Auber 93 16 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 17 Morgan Chedhomme (Fra) Auber 93 1.29 18 Yohan Cauquil (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 19 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 2.10 20 Tanel Kangert (Est) AG2R La Mondiale 2.12 21 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 22 Sébastien Harbonnier (Fra) Differdange - Apiflo Vacances 23 Trent Lowe (Aus) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 24 Alexandre Lemair (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 2.18 25 Jonathan Thire (Fra) Auber 93 3.09 26 Evert Verbist (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen 4.00 27 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 4.45 28 Masaaki Kikuchi (Jpn) Meitan Hompo - GDR 6.50 29 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 8.10 30 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 10.30 31 Mathieu Drouilly (Fra) Mitsubishi-Jartazi 13.47 Teams classification 1 Credit Agricole 25.23.33 2 Bouygues Telecom 0.03 3 Auber 93 4 Caisse d'Epargne 5 Francaise des Jeux 6 Mitsubishi Jartazi 7 Astana 8 Agritubel 9 Meitan Hompo - GDR 10 Topsports Vlaanderen 11 AG2R La Mondiale 12 Landbouwkrediet Tonissteiner 1.52 13 Garmin / Chipotle Presented By H30 2.15 14 Roubaix Lille Metropole 3.41 15 Differdange Apiflo Vacances 16 Bretagne Armor Lux
