Tour de la Manche - 2.6

France, May 8-11, 2003

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Stage 4 - May 10: Hambye-St-Hilaire-du-Harcouet, 97.5 km

Champagne for Levécot

By Jean-François Quénet in St-Hilaire-du-Harcouet

This Tour de la Manche is a fine battle between ex-professionals, future stars and riders from the new countries of cycling. A former rider from BigMat is leading the race before the last stage, and this is Benjamin Levécot who couldn't get his contract renewed despite a win in the GP Soissons in 2001. A 20 year old espoir from Crédit Agricole, Kilian Patour, won stage 4 and a South African, Jeremy Maartens from HSBC, was the fastest time triallist the day after the Japanese win in Gavray with Takehiro Mizutani.

"Frenchmen and foreigners are equal in stage wins now, 2-2, let's go for the finale," a delighted race organiser Jean-Claude Leclerc said. The finish in Granville is always tight and it'll be the same again on Sunday with three Rabobank riders threatening Levécot's yellow jersey: Thomas Dekker, Rory Sutherland and Jukka Vastaranta, the latter being only 26 seconds down on GC although he crashed during the final laps and was forced to swap his bike with teammate Bert Aernouts.

The team from the Champagne area has already worked a lot in stage 4, chasing down the 10 man breakaway comprised of South African champion Tiaan Kannemeyer and his new French teammate Freddy Bichot (Barloworld), Yvan Sartis (French Police), Jens Mouris (Rabobank), Norman Meekerk (Bert Story Piels), Daniel Spence (HSBC), Yasutaka Tashiro (Bridgestone Anchor), Kilian Patour (Crédit Agricole), Fabrice Dubost (VC St-Lô) and Tony Cavet (VC Evreux).

With two riders ahead, Team Barloworld looked likely to give the Tour de la Manche a second South African win in the day, after Maartens' excellent ride in the morning's time trial. But when three riders attacked within the last ten kilometres, Bichot was stuck at the back of the group behind Dubost, who got dropped. He had to sprint to get back on but it was too late. Patour, Cavet and Tashiro were gone for good. Bridgestone Anchor's directeur sportif Akira Asada was hoping for a second stage win in two days but Cavet led the sprint out from far. "That move helped me", eventual winner Patour confessed.

Patour is a name to keep in mind for the future. He was the junior French champion in 2000 and the son of a good elite amateur rider, who did his best to prevent his son from cycling because he had to stop his own career after an injury caused by a guy unaware of his behaviour due to drug taking. Young Kilian was a rower. Against his father's will, he took up cycling and doesn't regret it. He's had seven wins since he left the junior category. He's in his second year with Crédit Agricole espoirs and plans to stay for one more season before joining the big world of pro cycling. He's only 20 years old but he's a true winner. Earlier this year he took the Brussel-Zepperen (1.6) classic in Belgium and he's very proud of it.

The Manche in Normandy is the home of his directeur sportif Lionel Marie who was unhappy with his riders after stage 2. They all missed the breakaway and got dropped after chasing. Patour's revenge in St-Hilaire-du-Harcouet is an excellent one.

Results

1 Kilian Patour (Fra) Crédit Agricole        2.24.13
2 Tony Cavet (Fra) VC Evreux
3 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor     0.04
4 Daniel Spence (RSA) HSBC                      0.16
5 Yvan Sartis (Fra) French Police
6 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Barloworld
7 Jens Mouris (Ned) Rabobank                    0.19
8 Tiaan Kannemeyer (RSA) Barloworld
9 Norman Meekerk (Ned) Bert Story Piels 
10 Romain Mary (Fra) French Police              0.50
11 Laszlo Garamszegi (Hun) Ferencvaros          0.51
12 Benoît Legrix (Fra) Normandy 
13 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank
14 Nicolas Labussière (Fra) French Police
15 Régis Ruet (Fra) VC St-Lô
16 Alexandre Bizet (Fra) VC St-Lô
17 Takehiro Mizutani (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor
18 Huub Duyn (Ned) Bert Story Piels
19 Stéphane Belot (Fra) VC St-Lô
20 Yann Buiron (Fra) French Police

General classification after stage 4

1 Benjamin Levécot (Fra) Champagne          11.03.33
2 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank                  0.04
3 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Rabobank                0.10
4 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Champagne                  0.14
5 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank               0.26
6 Yvan Sartis (Fra) French Police               0.32
7 Eric Berthou (Fra) Barloworld                 0.33
8 Tony Cavet (Fra) VC Evreux                    0.40
9 Tiaan Kannemeyer (RSA) Barloworld             0.48
10 Yann Buiron (Fra) French Police              0.53
11 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Barloworld               1.01
12 Daniel Spence (RSA) HSBC
13 Tamas Lengyel (Hun) Ferencvaros              1.03
14 Mika Hietanen (Fin) VC Evreux                1.15
15 Shinishi Fukushima (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor  1.16
16 Ian McLeod (RSA) HSBC                        1.24
17 Jaco Odendaal (RSA) Barloworld               1.26
18 Huub Duyn (Ned) Bert Story Piels             1.29
19 Eddy Lamoureux (Fra) Champagne               1.36
20 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor    1.44