Tour de la Manche - 2.6

France, May 8-11, 2003

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Stage 5 - May 11: St-Hilaire-du-Harcouet-Granville, 170 km

HSBC joins French mafia against Barloworld and Rabobank

By Jean-François Quénet in Granville

Former BigMat pro Benjamin Levécot has retained his lead in the last stage of the 39th Tour de la Manche, despite some fabulous opposition from Team Barloworld and Rabobank, who never left him in peace until the last kilometre of the race.

After only 22 km, a break went away with Freddy Bichot being the best ranked rider on GC, just over one minute down, and he became the virtual leader for a long time. There was also French policeman Jean-Philippe Rouxel who rode as a pro for Castorama in 1989 and 1990, Dany Caprais coming from St-Martin-de-Landelles, the village of Tour de France speaker Daniel Mangeas which hosted the start of a Tour de France stage last year, Alexandre Bizet from local club VC St-Lô, Julien Mazet of Crédit Agricole, Englishman Colin Roshier, Norman Meekerk from Bert Story Piels, Nicolas Vermeulen of VC Evreux and Nicolas Chovaux from Douai, who is the overall winner of the climbing competition.

They stayed away until the race reached the circuit but were caught with 30km to go by the action of the Champagne team working for race leader Levécot, some individuals who had nothing else to do but chase before pulling out and, surprisingly, the South African HSBC team, whose best rider on GC was Daniel Spence, 12th.

Officially, they did it "for training" before the FDB Milk Ras that is their next race in Ireland. Maybe they weren't too keen on Bichot winning the Tour de la Manche ahead of the other South African team, Barloworld. It's a pity, because pure talents like Ian McLeod, Spence, Jamie Ball and Jeff Howes are worth more than this dirty job when they want to gain experience overseas. A turning point in the race happened in stage 4 when Jeremy Maartens, winner of the time trial and 2nd overall at the time, crashed in the bunch. It helped Levécot a lot.

When it wasn't possible anymore for Barloworld to win the race on the hard and spectacular final circuit in Granville, Rabobank did its best to attack the yellow jersey. Jukka Vastaranta, Rory Sutherland and Thomas Dekker, one after the other, tried to force the decision in their favour but Levécot was strong and had the necessary friendly helpers.

In the uphill finish, former French amateur champion Romain Mary gave one more win to the French police that he just joined recently. By the way, his job before the Tour de la Manche consisted in protecting president Jacques Chirac at the Élysée in Paris. Meanwhile all the other members of the long breakaway had been dropped except from Mazet, Bichot who had attacked from the bunch once more after being caught, managed to get 10th place in the stage.

It was a lot of energy spent by Barloworld for an average result at the end (8th, 9th and 11th overall and no stage win) but team director Michel Gros was happy with the progress of the South Africans and amazed by Bichot. "This guy is absolutely impressive!", he said, although he has seen a few others in the past when he worked for Festina and Jean Delatour.

Results

1 Romain Mary (Fra) French Police             4.10.34
2 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank                0.02
3 Huub Duyn (Ned) Bert Story Piels
4 Benoît Legrix (Fra) Normandy
5 Régis Ruet (Fra) VC St-Lô
6 Yvan Sartis (Fra) French Police
7 Franck Bisiaux (Fra) Douai
8 Tony Cavet (Fra) VC Evreux
9 Benjamin Levécot (Fra) Champagne
10 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Barloworld
11 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Champagne
12 Tamas Lengyel (Hun) Ferencvaros
13 Philip Evans (GBR) US Briquebecq
14 Oscar Stenstrom (Fin) VC Evreux
15 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank
16 Gabor Arany (Hun) Ferencvaros
17 Nicolas Douville (Fra) US Briquebecq
18 Gérald Bigot (Fra) Douai
19 Jaco De Witt (RSA) Barloworld
20 Eddy Lamoureux (Fra) Champagne

Final general classification

1 Benjamin Levécot (Fra) Champagne            15.14.09
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                 0.20
6 Yvan Sartis (Fra) French Police                 0.32
7 Tony Cavet (Fra) VC Evreux                      0.40
8 Eric Berthou (Fra) Barloworld                   0.47
9 Tiaan Kannemeyer (RSA) Barloworld               0.48
10 Yann Buiron (Fra) French Police                0.53
11 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Barloworld                 0.57
12 Daniel Spence (RSA) HSBC                       1.01
13 Tamas Lengyel (Hun) Ferencvaros                1.03
14 Shinishi Fukushima (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor    1.16
15 Ian McLeod (RSA) HSBC                          1.24
16 Huub Duyn (Ned) Bert Story Piels               1.25
17 Jaco Odendaal (RSA) Barloworld                 1.26
18 Eddy Lamoureux (Fra) Champagne                 1.36
19 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor      1.44
20 Benoît Legrix (Fra) Normandy                   1.50
21 Riadh Baatout (Tun) VC Evreux                  1.52
22 Oscar Stenstrom (Fin) VC Evreux                1.55
23 Bart Oegema (Ned) Bert Story Piels             1.57
24 Thomas Lundgaard (Den) Kvickly Odder           1.59
25 Régis Ruet (Fra) VC St-Lô                      2.05
26 Stéphane Belot (Fra) VC St-Lô                  2.07
27 Romain Mary (Fra) French Police                2.08
28 Franck Bisiaux (Fra) Douai                     2.27
29 Michael Harrison (GBR) Stilton                 2.55
30 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank                 3.02
31 Ludovic Lemaréchal (Fra) Normandy              3.03
32 Philip Evans (GBR) US Briquebecq               3.11
33 Jaco De Witt (RSA) Barloworld
34 Michael Collins (GBR) Douai                    3.15
35 Peter Lundblad (Swe) Kvickly Odder             3.19
36 Takehiro Mizutani (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor     3.44
37 Fabrice Dubost (Fra) VC St-Lô                  4.10
38 Frank Marie (Fra) US Briquebecq                5.00
39 Jens Mouris (Ned) Rabobank                     6.39
40 Colin Roshier (GBR) Stilton                    7.05
41 Dany Caprais (Fra) Normandy                    7.35
42 Jeff Howes (RSA) HSBC                          7.46
43 Coen Loos (Ned) Bert Story Piels               8.28
44 Simon Gaywood (GBR) Stilton                    9.36
45 Julien Mazet (Fra) Crédit Agricole            11.14
46 Nicolas Labussière (Fra) French Police        11.28
47 Bart Aernouts (Ned) Rabobank                  11.37
48 Denis Robin (Fra) Crédit Agricole             11.40
49 Geoffroy Lequattre (Fra) Crédit Agricole      11.43
50 Gérald Bigot (Fra) Douai                      12.13
51 Martial Locatelli (Fra) French Police         12.23
52 Jean-Michel Delarue (Fra) Normandy            13.34
53 Sébastien Viardot (Fra) US Briquebecq         13.46
54 Jacques Fullard (RSA) Barloworld              16.04
55 Morten Mikkelsen (Den) Kvickly Odder          16.26
56 Andy Lyons (GBR) Stilton                      17.09
57 Fabien Fleury (Fra) Crédit Agricole           17.37
58 Nicolas Chovaux (Fra) Douai                   17.47
59 Lars Werenberg (Den) Kvickly Odder            19.36
60 Gilles Cirone (Fra) Douai                     20.01
61 Kilian Patour (Fra) Crédit Agricole           20.17
62 Norman Meekerk (Ned) Bert Story Piels         20.33
63 Jérémy Dartus (Fra) Crédit Agricole           21.33
64 Csaba Szekeres (Hun) Ferencvaros              21.45
65 Nicolas Douville (Fra) US Briquebecq          22.41
66 Gabor Arany (Hun) Ferencvaros                 23.05
67 Laszlo Garamszegi (Hun) Ferencvaros           26.49
68 Frank Kwanten (Ned) Bert Story Piels          28.45
69 Sébastien Briouze (Fra) VS St-Lô              37.24
70 Kert Vainsalu (Est) VC St-Lô                  37.26
71 Taichi Suzuki (Jap) Bridgestone Anchor        38.55
72 Jonas Pedersen (Den) Kvickly Odder            42.45