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GP Ouest France-Plouay - 1.HC
France, August 29, 2004
Main Page Results Women's Race
August 29: Men's Elite race
Rous returns in style
Team victory as La Boulangère plays its cards
By Chris Henry
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Former French national champion Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangère) claimed victory in France's revered late-summer classic, the GP Ouest France-Plouay, outsprinting Serge Baguet (Lotto-Domo) and Guido Trentin (Cofidis) and a hard-charging group just seconds behind. Rous, a stage winner in the recent Tour du Limousin, is back to top form after a lacklustre Tour de France and continuing his team's winning ways, after successes in recent months by Jérôme Pineau, Sylvain Chavanel, and above all Thomas Voeckler.
After a series of threatening breakaways, Rous emerged among the leaders in the race finale after 14 laps of the tough Plouay circuit. Following an attack by Trentin on the final climb, it was Baguet first, then Rous who joined the move, creating a small but decisive split ahead of the chasers, led home by Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner). Baguet started the sprint but Rous was the man with the most left in his legs, passing for a narrow but triumphant victory.
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For Brioches La Boulangère it was very much a team effort, as the team had riders in all the key moves. First it was Maryan Hary going in the first real escape, along with the likes of Christophe Le Mevel and Pierrick Fédrigo (Crédit Agricole), Frédéric Guesdon (FDJeux.com), Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner), and David Moncoutié. With little more than a minute in and over the fast-moving field, the junction was made two laps before the halfway mark.
A new group soon emerged, this time building a more substantial advantage. Walter Beneteau was La Boulangère's man of the moment, joining Christophe Agnolutto (Ag2r-Prévoyance), Nicolas Reynaud (RAGT Semences), Nicolas Vogondy (FDJeux.com), and Thomas Ziegler (Gerolsteiner). Their lead quickly reached nearly five minutes before a determined reaction came from the peloton, with Crédit Agricole and Cofidis having missed the move.
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Finally when this group was reeled in, the winning move was sparked by Trentin, Rous, Hondo, Vladimir Duma (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago), Nuno Ribeiro (LA-Pecol), and Giulio Tomi (Vini Caldirola). With three laps to go, the move was set, setting a scorching pace around the hilly Bretagne parcours. In the finale, up the final ascent of the Ty Marec, Trentin was first to take his chance. Hondo, the favoured sprinter in the group, hesitated and prompted Rous to make his counter. As Trentin began to fade, Baguet was next to go, but Rous was there immediately to take the sprint and a well-deserved win.
Photography
Images by Valery Hache/AFP Photo
- Walter Beneteau (Brioches La Boulangere) leads an early break
- Nicolas Vogondy (FDJeux.com) drives the break
- Nicolas Reynaud (RAGT Semences) was active in the early break
- Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangere) leads the decisive break
- Didier Rous (Brioches la Boulangere) rides in GP Ouest France-Plouay
- Didier Rous (Brioche la Boulangere) takes victory in the GP Ouest France-Plouay
- Didier Rous celebrates as he crosses the line - and goes for the gurning prime too.
- The podium - Guido Trentin (Cofidis, 3rd), Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangere, 1st) and Serge Baguet (Lotto-Domo, 2nd)
Images by Régis Garnier/www.velofotopro.fr.st
- Olympic points race gold medallist, Russia's Mikhail Ignatyev, at the start of the GP Ouest France-Plouay.
- Yaroslav Popovych, riding one of his last races for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago before joining Lance Armstrong at Discovery Channel.
- The first real escape, containing Barbero (Lampre), Hary (Brioches la boulangère), Fedrigo (Credit Agricole), and Moncontié (Cofidis).
- Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) in the peloton. Wegmann eventually finished in 10th place.
- Deux Beneteau in Plouay!
- Unaï Yus Kerejeta (Brioches La Boulangere) leads the peloton in front of the jumbotron.
- The peloton.
- With the break caught, a new escape begins containing Agnolutto (AG2R), Ziegler (Gerolsteiner), Vogondy (FDjeux.com), Beneteau (Brioches la Boulangère), Reynaud (RAGT).
- Guido Trentin (Cofidis) leads the chase group in pursuit of Rous and Baguet.
- Sandy Casar (FdJeux.com) leads the chase.
- And the winner is... Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangere)!
- The GP Ouest France-Plouay was Jean-Cyril Robin's last race as a professional.
- Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangere) thanks his team-mates in a united performance.
- The podium - (L to R) Guido Trentin (Cofidis, 3rd), Didier Rous (Brioches La Boulangere, 1st) and Serge Baguet (Lotto-Domo, 2nd).
- Three happy boys!
Results - 198 km
1 Didier Rous (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 4.31.27 2 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto-Domo 3 Guido Trentin (Ita) Cofidis 0.02 4 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Gerolsteiner 5 Giulio Tomi (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 6 Vladimir Duma (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 7 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 8 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis 9 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Lampre 10 Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Gerolsteiner 11 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) FDJeux.com 12 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis 13 Florent Brard (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 0.04 14 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) LA-Pecol 0.05 15 Roman Luhovyy (Ukr) RAGT Semences-MG Rover 0.11 16 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 17 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Lampre 18 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Credit Agricole 19 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Lampre 20 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 21 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 22 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) FDJeux.com 23 Marco Cavallari (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 24 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 25 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com 26 Nicola Loda (Ita) Tenax 27 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Lokomotiv 28 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Credit Agricole 29 Giampaolo Cheula (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 30 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 31 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 32 Unai Etxebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi 33 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 34 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 35 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) FDJeux.com 36 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) LA-Pecol 37 Christophe Rinero (Fra) RAGT Semences-MG Rover 38 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 39 Luis Pinheiro (Por) LA-Pecol 40 Yon Bru Pascal (Spa) LA-Pecol 41 Ruben Oarbeascoa (Spa) LA-Pecol 42 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) LA-Pecol 43 Mauricio Ardila (Col) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 44 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 45 Johan Coenen (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 46 Unaï Yus Kerejeta (Spa) Brioches La Boulangere 47 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 48 Giancarlo Ginestri (Ita) Tenax 49 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 50 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 51 Benoit Salmon (Fra) Credit Agricole 52 John Gadret (Fra) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 53 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita) Lampre 54 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Cofidis 55 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 56 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Cofidis 0.39 57 Gabriele Bosisio (Ita) Tenax 0.44 58 Gianluca Tonetti (Ita) Tenax 0.47 59 Matthew White (Aus) Cofidis 60 Gorka Verdugo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 61 Pedro Andrade (Por) LA-Pecol 62 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 63 Alessandro Cortinovis (Ita) Lampre 64 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto-Domo 65 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 66 Christophe Detilloux (Bel) Lotto-Domo 67 Christophe Oriol (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 68 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 69 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 70 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Credit Agricole 71 Mauro Zinetti (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Nobili Rubinetterie 1.31 72 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax 73 David Mcpartland (Aus) Tenax 74 Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 75 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Credit Agricole 76 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.19 77 Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner 2.55 78 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 3.09 79 Björn Leukemans (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 80 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 81 David Etxebarria (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 82 Egoi Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 83 Angel Castresana (Spa) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 9.26 84 Gorka Arrizabalaga (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 85 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 86 Ief Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 87 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Ag2r-Prevoyance 88 Eric Berthou (Fra) RAGT Semences-MG Rover
