Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Giro finale Photo ©: Bettini |
23rd Tour de Normandie - 2.5
France, March 24-30, 2003
Main Page Results Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 4 - March 28: Flers - Valognes, 178 km
Sprinter Hans Dekkers doubles up
By Jean-François Quénet in Valognes
 |
The winner of stage 1, Hans Dekkers took his second bunch sprint in the Tour of Normandy today. The flying Dutchman from the Rabobank development team had no problems taking another win. "It was even easier than the first time," he said. "I have to congratulate my team for the colossal work they did in the last 20 kilometres. Then it was kind of an uphill finish and it's exactly what I'm the best at."
The stage had been extremely fast, with 47.4 km covered in the first hour. Two men eventually managed to break clear: the Breton champion Dominique Rault, a former Tour de France rider with Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne and BigMat, now competing for the Jean Floc'h amateur team, and Englishman Jonathan Dayus, who is a neo-pro with Team Ringerike from Norway. Rault was a threat for Dimitri Muravyev's yellow jersey, as he was only 1'58" down on the Kazakh rider from Quick.Step, but Dayus wasn't, as he is still recovering from his crash in the Cape Argus Pick'n Pay on March 16th in South Africa.
Dayus and Rault's maximum lead was six and half minutes. "But it didn't bother us," Muravyev explained. "We knew we could bring it back." It could have been in Quick.Step's interest to let the two men stay away until the end. Instead, they put their eggs in two baskets, trying also to win the stage with either Yoeri Beyens or Jochen Van Summeren. But they faced the possibility of having Jean Delatour's sprinter and all rounder Samuel Dumoulin to take some bonus seconds.
The race is still not won for Muravyev with two days to go. Stage 5 has a hilly finish where Filippo Pozzato showed his fabulous class one year ago, and the final stage to Caen also includes a steep climb that could change a lot of things.
Photography
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- Yellow jersey Muravyev with the best Normand rider of the day Gaetan Marques
- Dimitri Muravyev (Quick.Step-Davitamon) is a solid leader for the Tour of Normandy
- The podium in Valognes Samuel Dumoulin (best young rider), Christophe Cousinié (king of the mountains), Hans Dekkers (stage winner and leader of the points classification) and Nelson Vitorino (leader of the hot spot sprints)
Results
1 Hans Dekkers (Ned) Rabobank TT III 4.01.20 (44.25 km/h) 2 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 3 Said Haddou (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 4 Lubomir Kejval (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 5 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia 6 César Antunes Quiterio (Por) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 7 Gaetan Marques (Fra) Normandie 8 Plamen Stoianov (Bul) Big.Mat-Auber 93 (Bul) Mixed Team 9 Yvan Terenin (Rus) Russia 10 Jacek Walczak (Pol) Legia 11 Geoffrey Lequatre (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 12 Tony Cavet (Fra) Normandie 13 Stefan Felder (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 14 Mikhail Andreyev (Rus) Panorimmo 15 Pierrick Leclerc (Fra) VC Rouen 76 16 Benoit Legrix (Fra) Normandie 17 Junichi Shibuya (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 18 Stephane Bonsergent (Fra) France Police 19 Bruno Thibout (Fra) Jean Delatour 20 Jacek Morajko (Pol) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 21 Arno Wallaard (Ned) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 22 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Russia 23 Vincent Socquin (Fra) USSAPB 24 Takehiro Mizutani (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 25 Sebastien Foucher (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 26 Sebastien Portal (Fra) Panorimmo 27 Peter Oeschger (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 28 Tristan Valentin (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 29 Julien Marcuz (Fra) Panorimmo 30 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Jean Delatour 31 Nicolas Paris (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise 32 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 33 Stephane Breard (Fra) USSAPB 34 Franck Charrier (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise 35 Nelson Vitorino (Por) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 36 Samuel Bonnet (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise 37 Krassimir Vassiliev (Bul) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 38 Jean-Francois Jegou (Fra) Panorimmo 39 Andrei Ptchelkin (Rus) Russia 40 Luis Bartolomeu (Por) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 41 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 42 Stephane Couge (Fra) Panorimmo 43 Jonas Holmkvist (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 44 Fabrice Dubost (Fra) Normandie 45 Gerardo Fernandez (Arg) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 46 Oleg Joukov (Rus) Russia 47 Stefan Zoss (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 48 Lars Breiseth (Nor) Team Ringerike 49 Christophe Thebault (Fra) Jean Floc'h 50 Helder Miranda (Spa) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 51 Gaylord Cumont (Fra) VC Rouen 76 52 Vladisvlav Borisov (Rus) Russia 53 José Manuel De Sousa Cunha (Por) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 54 Ludovic Lanceleur (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 55 Jos Lucassen (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 56 Marc Feipeler (Fra) Panorimmo 57 Yann Buiron (Fra) Normandie 58 David Loosli (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 59 Mikhail Mikheev (Rus) Russia 60 Jean-Michel Delarue (Fra) Normandie 61 Frantisek Trkal (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 62 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III 63 Lubor Tesar (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 64 Yves Delarue (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 65 Frederic Mille (Fra) France Police 66 Gilles Canouet (Fra) Jean Floc'h 67 Frederic Lecrosnier (Fra) Jean Floc'h 68 Arthur Farenhout (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 69 Petter Renang (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 70 Stefan Mischler (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 71 Michiel Elijzen (Ned) Rabobank TT III 72 Dominique Rault (Fra) Jean Floc'h 73 David Lefevre (Fra) Jean Delatour 74 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 75 Gregorz Zoledziowski (Pol) Legia 76 Samuel Gicquel (Fra) Jean Floc'h 77 Stephane Couge (Fra) Panorimmo 78 Mart Louwers (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 79 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank TT III 80 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Ringerike 81 Christophe Cousinie (Fra) France Police 82 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 83 Marek Blazej (Pol) Legia 84 Florian Ludi (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 85 Guillaume Judas (Fra) Jean Floc'h 86 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 87 Hervé Duclos Lassalle (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 88 Jacky Durand (Fra) Mixed Team 89 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Legia 90 Tobias Lergard (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 91 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 92 Ricardo Silva Felgueiras (Por) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 93 Cyril Bos (Fra) USSAPB 94 Regis Yon (Fra) USSAPB 95 Jaroslaw Welsiak (Pol) Legia 96 Martial Locatelli (Fra) France Police 97 Anthony Testa (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise 98 Jérôme Bernard (Fra) Jean Delatour 99 Mickael Leveau (Fra) VC Rouen 76 100 Franck Vermeulen (Fra) Normandie 101 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 102 Cedrick Loue (Fra) VC Rouen 76 103 Petr Bencik (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 104 Fabien Fleury (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 105 Peter Van Agtmaal (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 106 Fernando Sousa (Por) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 107 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Mixed Team 108 Michal Kalenda (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 0.33 109 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Mixed Team 0.40 110 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Rabobank TT III 1.00 111 Jens Mouris (Ned) Rabobank TT III 1.11 112 Christian Lademann (Ger) eD'system-ZVVZ 1.20 113 Denis Robin (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 5.16 114 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 5.28 115 Jonathan Dayus (GBr) Team Ringerike 116 Yoeri Beyens (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 5.47 117 Mikael Segersäll (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 12.21 118 Per Martin Lund (Nor) Team Ringerike 19.51 119 Gabriel Rasch (Nor) Team Ringerike DNF Ken Hashikawa (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor DNF Taichi Suzuki (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor DNF Lionel Lorgeou (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise DNS Mattias Carlsson (Swe) Team Ringerike DNS Yasutaka Tashiro (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor DNS Pascal Carlot (Fra) CC Nogent-sur-Oise General classification after stage 4 1 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 16.26.03 2 Krassimir Vassiliev (Bul) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 0.07 3 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 4 Christophe Thebault (Fra) Jean Floc'h 0.21 5 Oleg Joukov (Rus) Russia 0.22 6 Lubor Tesar (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 1.11 7 Samuel Gicquel (Fra) Jean Floc'h 1.14 8 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 1.15 9 Geoffrey Lequatre (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 10 Vladisvlav Borisov (Rus) Russia 1.23 11 David Loosli (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 1.24 12 Andrei Ptchelkin (Rus) Russia 1.25 13 Stephane Breard (Fra) USSAPB 1.27 14 Jacek Morajko (Pol) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 15 Bruno Thibout (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.29 16 Arno Wallaard (Ned) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 17 Mickael Leveau (Fra) VC Rouen 76 1.32 18 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.34 19 Jos Lucassen (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 1.35 20 Gerardo Fernandez (Arg) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 1.39 21 Yves Delarue (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 1.41 22 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 1.42 23 Julien Marcuz (Fra) Panorimmo 24 Yann Buiron (Fra) Normandie 1.46 25 Marc Feipeler (Fra) Panorimmo 1.48 26 Helder Miranda (Spa) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 1.54 27 Dominique Rault (Fra) Jean Floc'h 1.55 28 Michiel Elijzen (Ned) Rabobank TT III 3.32 29 Koen De Kort (Ned) Rabobank TT III 3.33 30 Benoit Legrix (Fra) Normandie 3.51 31 Lubomir Kejval (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 3.56 32 Plamen Stoianov (Bul) Big.Mat-Auber 93 (Bul) Mixed Team 3.58 33 Mart Louwers (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 4.01 34 Mikhail Andreyev (Rus) Panorimmo 4.07 35 Yvan Terenin (Rus) Russia 36 Stefan Felder (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 4.11 37 Frederic Lecrosnier (Fra) Jean Floc'h 4.12 38 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank TT III 4.45 39 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Russia 5.33 40 Ricardo Silva Felgueiras (Por) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 6.04 41 Peter Van Agtmaal (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 7.21 42 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 14.47 43 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Ringerike 15.07 44 Marek Blazej (Pol) Legia 15.14 45 Petter Renang (Swe) Bianchi Scandinavia 46 Jacek Walczak (Pol) Legia 15.17 47 Cedrick Loue (Fra) VC Rouen 76 48 Jérôme Bernard (Fra) Jean Delatour 15.19 49 Florian Ludi (Swi) Saeco-Romer's-Wetzikon 15.20 50 Tristan Valentin (Fra) CM Aubervilliers 93 15.21 Points classification 1 Hans Dekkers (Ned) Rabobank TT III 60 pts 2 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 50 3 Geoffrey Lequatre (Fra) Credit Agricole Espoirs 32 4 César Antunes Quiterio (Por) Antarte-Rota dos Móveis 32 5 Arno Wallaard (Ned) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 31 6 Krassimir Vassiliev (Bul) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 30 7 Lubor Tesar (Cze) eD'system-ZVVZ 30 8 Samuel Gicquel (Fra) Jean Floc'h 26 9 Arthur Farenhout (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 21 10 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Quick.Step-Davitamon-Latexco 21 Sprints classification 1 Nelson Vitorino (Por) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 21 pts 2 Mickael Leveau (Fra) VC Rouen 76 15 3 Peter Van Agtmaal (Ned) Axa Cycling Team 6 4 Dominique Rault (Fra) Jean Floc'h 5 5 Frederic Lecrosnier (Fra) Jean Floc'h 5 6 Gaylord Cumont (Fra) VC Rouen 76 4 7 Stephane Breard (Fra) USSAPB 3 8 Pierrick Leclerc (Fra) VC Rouen 76 3 9 Jonathan Dayus (GBr) Team Ringerike 3 10 Krassimir Vassiliev (Bul) Porta da Ravessa-Tavira 2
