14th Classique des Alpes - 1.1/1.8

France, June 5, 2004

2003 Results Results Photos Past winners

Who will succeed Mancebo?

2003 winner Francisco Mancebo
Photo: © Jeff Tse

This year's 14th Classique des Alpes will be run over a customary challenging 165 km parcours between Aix-les-Bains and Chambery in the French Alps. As its name indicates, climbing is the order of the day with six categorised climbs en route, even though two of these form parts of larger climbs. The main challenge is the Col de Plainpalais/Col du Revard, a total of 20 km of climbing at approximately 4.4%, with the summit of the Revard coming at 24 km to go. However, the final part of the course is all downhill into Aix-les-Bains.

The Classique des Alpes forms part of the Coupe de France series as well as preceding the start of the Dauphiné Libéré by one day. As such, a strong field is expected including Euskaltel's Iban Mayo, winner in 2001, David Millar (Cofidis), who finished third last year, Crédit Agricole's climber Alexandre Botcharov, Landbouwkrediet's Giro star Yaroslav Popovych, Phonak's Oscar Sevilla, Domina Vacanze's Michele Scarponi, and Team CSC's Michele Bartoli and Ivan Basso.

There will also be a Junior Classique des Alpes run at the same time, run over 86 km and including three climbs: Col des Près (16.3 km at 4.9%), Col de Plainpalais (12.5 km at 4.4%) and Col du Revard (7.2 km at 4.2%).

Past winners

2003

1 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com           
2 Benoit Salmon (Fra) Phonak Hearing Systems  
3 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone  

2002

 1 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca
 2 Oscar Sevilla Ribera (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca
 3 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) EDS-fakta

2001

 1 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Euskatel-Euskadi
 2 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service
 3 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mercury-Viatel

2000

 1 José Maria Jimenez (Spa)
 2 Fernando Escartin (Spa)
 3 Lance Armstrong (USA)

1999

 1 Unai Osa (Spa)
 2 Benoit Salmon (Fra)
 3 David Etxebarria (Spa)
 
1998

 1 Laurent Jalabert (Fra)
 2 Francesco Casagrande (Ita)
 3 Benoit Salmon (Fra)
 
1997

 1 Laurent Roux (Fra)
 2 Laurent Madouas (Fra)
 3 José Maria Jimenez (Spa)

1996

 1 Laurent Jalabert (Fra)
 2 Luc Leblanc (Fra)
 3 Iñigo Cuesta (Spa)

1995

 1 Ramón Gonzalez-Arrieta (Spa)
 2 Gerard Rué (Fra)
 3 Richard Virenque (Fra)

1994

 1 Oliverio Rincon (Col)
 2 Laurent Roux (Fra)
 3 Ronan Pensec (Fra)

1993

 1 Eddy Bouwmans (Ned)
 2 Thierry Clavyrolat (Fra)
 3 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra)

1992

 1 Gilles Delion (Fra)
 2 Luc Leblanc (Fra)
 3 Dante Rezze (Fra)

1991

 1 Charly Mottet (Fra)
 2 Robert Millar (GBr)
 3 Luc Leblanc (Fra)

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