32nd Tour de Vendée - 1.3

France, April 20, 2002

2002 Results Results Past winners

Is eight too much?

By Benoît Gauthier

Jaan Kirsipuu
Photo: © Benoit Gauthier

Is this a surprise? Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2R Prévoyance) has won the 32nd Tour de Vendée beating Carlos Dacruz (FDJeux.com) and young Jérôme Pineau (Brioches La Boulangère) in the final sprint. It is his fourth win in this race which is held in Ouest France. As an experienced rider, he used his racing knowledge to take advantage of a situation which was almost under the Brioches La Boulangère's control for most of the day.

The highly motivated Brioches La Boulangère guys, guided by directeur sportif Jean-René Bernaudeau and manager Philippe Raimbaud, had good reason to put the hammer down together. They were racing at home, in the Vendée department, where the head office of their sponsor, Brioches-La Boulangère is. And after Didier Rous' win in 2001 and Franck Bouyer last year, they wanted to make it three in a row.

This is surely why they didn't allow French champion Nicolas Vogondy (FDJeux.com) to take too much advantage after his attack just before kilometre 80. But their high speed in front of the bunch, quite early in the race, had a result that they might have not imagined. Helped by a fall in the bunch, which left Mickaël Pichon (FDJeux.com) with a fractured collarbone, they caused what would be the good breakaway. In this eighteen man break, the Brioches-La Boulangère team was forced to do all the work, because of their apparent superiority with eight riders in it. With them, were two riders from MBK Oktos (Pencolé and Barthe), two from Ag2R-prévoyance (Flickinger and Kirsipuu) and three from FDJeux.com with Vogondy (who was quickly caught), Casper and recent Circuit de la Sarthe winner Carlos Dacruz, and Jens Voigt (Crédit-Agricole).

Brioches on the attack
Photo: © Benoit Gauthier

Kilometre after kilometre, what should have been certain became more and more annoying for the Brioches-La Boulangère team. Since nobody was keen on any collaboration, they had to work alone till the final three laps. But there, with ten kilometres to go, they had already lost four of their eight men and their strong ambition for the victory was seriously compromised. To avoid a sprint with dangerous men like Kirsipuu and Barthe, Walter Bénéteau and his team-mates, Charteau, Geslin and Pineau attacked several times, but without any result.

In the last kilometres, Jaan Kirsipuu received good help from Andy Flickinger, whose action was completely devoted to his leader. It is thanks to him that the Estonian was able to sprint for his fourth win in the Tour de Vendée.

"Today, it was the hardest victory of all here," said a very pleased Jaan Kirsipuu after the finish.

But the hardest cross to bear was surely for the Brioches-La Boulangère team, which failed after spending a lot of energy for almost nothing. "It may be seen as a crazy decision to put all of my riders riding strongly in the breakaway, but we have no regrets," said Jean-René Bernaudeau. "Our group is still young and what my riders did today will be useful for them in the future," he added, surely thinking of revenge, here, in 2004...

Results

1 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) AG2R Prevoyance                      4.26.12
2 Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.Com
3 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 
4 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 
5 Andy Flickinger (Fra) AG2R Prevoyance
6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Crédit-Agricole  
7 Franck Pencolé (Fra) MBK - Oktos
8 Stéphane Barthe (Fra) MBK - Oktos                           0.02
9 Walter Bénéteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère                0.05
10 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.Com                           0.07
11 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère              0.10
12 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe) Crédit-Agricole                    0.57
13 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit-Agricole
14 Andris Nauduzs (Lat) CCC Atlas - Polsat  
15 Carlos Torrent (Spa) Paternina - Costa De Almeria
16 Erki Putsep (Est) AG2R Prevoyance
17 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Crédit-Agricole  
18 Jimmy Casper (Fra) FDJeux.Com
19 Nacor Burgos (Spa) Colchon Relax - Fuenlabrada
20 Plamen Stoyanov (Bul) Bigmat - Auber 93  
21 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Crédit-Agricole
22 Pedro Soeiro-Miranda (Por) Carvalhelhos - Boavista  
23 Dioni Galparsoro (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
24 Mark Scanlon (Irl) AG2R Prevoyance
25 Unai Etxebarria-Arana (Ven) Euskaltel - Euskadi
26 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 
27 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Colchon Relax - Fuenlabrada
28 Christophe Rinero (Fra) MBK - Oktos
29 Mickaël Buffaz (Fra) Jean Delatour
30 Gustavo Veloso (Spa) Carvalhelhos - Boavista  
31 Ludovic Martin (Fra) Jean Delatour
32 Jan Faltynec (Cze) Ed' System - Zvvz 
33 German Nieto-Fernandez (Spa) Colchon Relax - Fuenlabrada
34 Inaki Isasi-Flores (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
35 Israël Núñez (Spa) Asc - Vila Do Conde 
36 Felix Garcia-Casas (Spa) Bigmat - Auber 93
37 José-Carlos Rodrigues (Por) Carvalhelhos - Boavista  
38 Vincent Templier (Fra) MBK - Oktos
39 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour
40 José-Manuel Maestre-Rodriguez (Spa) Colchon Relax - Fuenlabrada
41 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Bigmat - Auber 93  
42 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Team Barloworld 
43 Célio Sousa (Por) Carvalhelhos - Boavista  
44 Juan-Carlos Guillamon (Spa) Paternina - Costa De Almeria   1.07
45 Guido Trentin (Ita) Cofidis 
46 José-Domingo Segado (Spa) Paternina - Costa De Almeria
47 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) FDJeux.Com
48 Jérôme Bernard (Fra) Jean Delatour
49 Ruben Diaz De Cerio (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
50 Alexeï Sivakov (Rus) Bigmat - Auber 93  
51 Benoît Poilvet (Fra) Crédit-Agricole
52 Lauri Aus (Est) AG2R Prevoyance
53 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 
54 Eric Berthou (Fra) Team Barloworld 
55 Gustavo-Mario Toledo Britos (Arg) Paternina - Costa De Almeria
56 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.Com
57 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) CCC Atlas - Polsat
58 Ludovic Auger (Fra) Bigmat - Auber 93  
59 Christophe Le Mével (Fra) Crédit-Agricole                  1.20
60 Ryan Cox (RSA) Team Barloworld 
61 José-Antonio Garrido (Spa) Paternina - Costa De Almeria    1.26
62 Jacobus Nicolas De Witt (RSA) Team Barloworld              2.01
 
Coupe de France positions after seven races of 15
 
1 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) AG2R Prevoyance                          122 pts
2 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Jean Delatour                            55
3 Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.com                                53
4 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches-La Boulangère)                50
5 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com                            50

Past winners

2002 Franck Bouyer (Fra) Bonjour 201.4km in 4.54.24 (41.046 km/h)

2001 Didier Rous (Fra) Bonjour 206 kms in 4.51.32 (42.479 km/h)
2000 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R-Prevoyance 200.2 kms in 4.45.16
1999 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Casino 204 kms in 4.52.05
1998 Marco di Renzo (Ita) Cantina-Tollo 204 kms in 4.56.54
1997 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est)
1996 Laurent Desbiens (Fra)
1995 Mario De Clercq (Bel)
1994 Patrick Van Roosbroeck (Bel)
1993 Dimitry Zhdanov (Rus)
1992 Bruno Cornillet (Fra)
1991 Fabrice Naessens (Bel)
1990 Francois Lemarchand (Fra)
1989 Laurent Bezault (Fra)
1988 Alberto Leanizbarrutia (Spa)
1987 Jean-Claude Colotti (Fra)
1986 Francis Castaing (Fra)
1985 Michel Bibillet (Fra)
1984 Claude Moreau (Fra)
1983 Pierre Bazzo (Fra)
1982 Serge Beucherie (Fra)
1981 Bernard Bourreau (Fra)
1980 Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra)


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