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28th Route du Sud - 2.3

France, June 19-22, 2004

2003 results     Stage List     Preview    Start List     Past winners

The Stages

  • Stage 1 - June 19: Castres - Vielha (Spain), 228 km
  • Stage 2 - June 20: Lès (Spain) - St Gaudens, 141 km
  • Stage 3 - June 21: Loures Barousse - Sarp ITT, 23.5 km
  • Stage 4 - June 22: Montréjeau - Loudenvielle Le Louron, 150.1 km

Short but tough 28th Route du Sud

Running between Saturday, June 19 and Tuesday, June 22 is the 28th edition of the Route du Sud. Held over four stages in the southern part of France and northern Spain, the Route du Sud is a condensed test for an all-round cyclist. Its proximity to the Tour de France makes it useful as a form tester as well, although many top riders consider it to be too hard and too close to the Tour for preparation.

The first stage starts in Castres and travels 228 km to Vielha (Spain), finishing uphill at 971m altitude. Stage 2 from Lès (Spain) to St Gaudens (France) is significantly shorter at 141 km, and should benefit the sprinters. The third stage is a 23.5 km individual time trial from Loures Barousse to Sarp, containing some small, but tough climbs. The final stage will be the decider, between Montréjeau and Loudenvielle Le Louron, passing over the famous Pyreneean climbs of Col du Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Hourquette d'Ancizan and Col du Val Louron, with the last climb coming with 19 km to go.

There are 11 teams entered in the race, including all of the major French teams, along with a smattering of foreign squads: Ag2R Prevoyance, Credit Agricole, Cofidis, Brioches La Boulangère, FDJeux.com, R.A.G.T. Semences, Oktos, Auber93, T - Mobile, Alessio Bianchi and Team Wiesenhof.

Start list

(Partial)

Alessio-Bianchi                          FDJeux.com
 
1 Magnus Bäckstedt (Swe)                 11 Sandy Casar (Fra)
2 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita)             12 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra)
3 Angelo Furlan (Ita)                    13 Freddy Bichot (Fra)
4 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe)                14 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra)
5 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro)              15 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra)
6 Andrea Noè (Ita)                       16 Jérémy Roy (Fra)
7 Franco Pellizotti (Ita)                17 Francis Mourey (Fra)
8 Cristian Moreni (Ita)                  18 Christophe Mengin (Fra)
                                         19 Bradley Mcgee (Aus)
                                         20 Baden Cooke (Aus)
 
Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone         AG2r Prévoyance
 
21 Frédéric Bessy (Fra)                  31 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra)
22 Jimmy Casper (Fra)                    32 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra)
23 Arnaud Coyot (Fra)                    33 Stéphane Berges (Fra)
24 Christophe Edaleine (Fra)             35 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra)
25 David Millar (GBr)                    36 Stéphane Goubert (Fra)
26 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel)               37 Christophe Oriol (Fra)
27 Hayden Roulston (NZl)                 38 Nicolas Portal (Fra)
28 Janek Tombak (Est)                    39 Mark Scanlon (Irl)
29 Peter Farazijn (Bel)
 
Brioches la Boulangère                   Crédit Agricole
 
41 Walter Beneteau (Fra)                 51 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus)
42 Anthony Charteau (Fra)                52 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra)
43 Anthony Geslin (Fra)                  53 Patrice Halgand (Fra)
44 Maryan Hary (Fra)                     54 Cédric Hervé (Fra)
45 Christophe Kern (Fra)                 56 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)
47 Thomas Voeckler (Fra)                 57 Lilian Jegou (Fra)
48 Franck Renier (Fra)                   58 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra)
49 Matthieu Sprick (Fra)                 60 Benoît Salmon (Fra)
50 Unai Yus Querejeta (Spa)
 
R.A.G.T Semences-MG Rover                T-Mobile Team
 
61 Christophe Rinero (Fra)               71 Mario Aerts (Bel)
62 Frédéric Finot (Fra)                  72 Cadel Evans (Aus)
63 Eric Berthou (Fra)                    73 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz)
65 Gilles Bouvard (Fra)                  74 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger)
66 Nicolas Reynaud (Fra)                 75 Matthias Kessler (Ger)
68 Renaud Dion (Fra)                     76 Andreas Klöden (Ger)
69 Christophe Laurent (Fra)              77 Tomas Konecny (Cze)
70 Ludovic Martin (Fra)                  78 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita)
                                         80 Christian Werner (Ger)
 
Auber 93                                 Oktos-Saint Quentin
 
81 Ludovic Auger (Fra)                   91 Ivaïlo Gabrovski (Bul)
82 David Breard (Fra)                    92 Maxim Gourov (Kaz)
83 Niels Brouzes (Fra)                   93 Andrey Mizourov (Kaz)
84 Loïc Lamouller (Fra)                  94 David Boucher (Fra)
86 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra)                  98 Benjamin Levecot (Fra)
87 Laurent Paumier (Fra)                 99 Sergeï Krushevskiy (Uzb)
88 Yannick Talabardon (Fra)
89 Tristan Valentin (Fra)
 
Team Wiesenhof
 
101 Jens Heppner (Ger)
102 Enrico Poitschke (Ger)
103 Ralf Grabsch (Ger)
104 René Obst (Ger)
105 Martin Müller (Ger)
106 Lars Wackernagel (Ger)
107 Roberto Lochowski (Ger)
108 Björn Schröder (Ger)
109 Christian Knees (Ger)
110 Sebastian Siedler (Ger)

Past winners

The Route du Sud began officially in 1988 as a Cat 2.4 event. It was previously
known as the Tour du Tarn (1977-81) and then Tour Midi-Pyrénees (1982-87).

2003 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon               
2002 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank
2001 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Fassa Bortolo
2000 Tomasz Brozyna (Pol) Banesto
1999 Jonathan Vaughters (USA) US Postal
1998 Armand de las Cuevas (Fra) Banesto 
1997 Patrick Jonker (Aus) Rabobank
1996 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE
1995 Laurent Dufaux (Sui) Festina
1994 Alvaro Mejia (Col) Motorola
1993 Eric Boyer (Fra) GAN
1992 Arturas Kasputis (Lit) Postobon
1991 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Helvetia
1990 Yves Bonnamour (Fra) Castorama
1989 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Z Peugeot
1988 Ronan Pensec (Fra) Z Peugeot
1987 Régis Clere (Fra) Teka
1986 Niki Rüttimann (Swi) La Vie Claire
1985 Stephen Roche (Ire) La Redoute
1984 Pascal Simon (Fra) Peugeot
1983 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot
1982 Francesco Moser (Ita) Famucine
1981 Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra) Peugeot
1980 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot
1979 Yvon Bertin (Fra) Renault
1978 Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (Fra) Gitane
1977 Jacques Esclassan (Fra) Peugeot

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