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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
