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3rd Paris-Corrèze - 2.3
France, September 26-28, 2003
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Stage 2 - September 27: Montluçon - Besse, 172.8 km
Cédric Vasseur is France's number 1 for the World's
By Jean-François Quénet in Besse/St-Anastaise
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It was a mountain stage in Paris-Corrèze today and Cédric Vasseur proved again that he is France's number 1 rider prior to the world championship. He claimed his fifth win this year after the final stage of the Dauphiné, a stage in the Tour du Limousin, and a stage and the GC in the Hessen Rundfahrt. He also showed his good condition recently when he came 2nd in the GP Van Steenbergen in Belgium.
"I didn't really start today's stage with the intention of winning it," Vasseur said. "Yesterday, I rode to my hotel after the finish for a total of 257 kilometres on my bike because I don't want suffer from a lack of miles at the end of the world championship and have any regrets.
"Our Cofidis team had no one in the first breakaway this morning, there was a bit of a panic through our ear pieces and David Moncoutié sacrificed himself to bridge the gap. Since Dave Millar said his words at the Tour de France, Cofidis really rides like a team and there's even a great friendship among us now. When the 15 men went away, I just followed the move. Because almost all the teams were represented in the front, it was obvious that no one would chase."
The breakaway included Vasseur and Clain (Cofidis), Verbrugghe (Lotto-Domo), Pichon and Wilson (FDJeux.com), Sprick and Patour (French national espoirs team), Rinero (Oktos), Halgand and Edaleine (Jean Delatour), Agnolutto (Ag2r), Peschel (Gerolsteiner), Chavanel (La Boulangère), Koehler (Palmans-Collstrop), Ludovic Auger (BigMat) and Poilvet (Crédit Agricole).
The great French hope Sylvain Chavanel went away with 60 kilometres to go. "That was the same mistake I did yesterday," Vasseur suggested. "He should have learned from my experience. When I saw him attacking, I didn't worry at all. We were five chasing behind him so it was easier for us to share the turns. However, it took us a long time to catch him."
It happened in the final 20 kilometres, as former Tour de France king of the mountains Christophe Rinero was first to come across the line with one lap to go and an exhausted Chavanel crossed with the complete white face of a rider who hunger flatted. As he's flying at the moment, Vasseur overtook Rinero as well and finished on his own. His advantage of 20 seconds on GC should allow him to win the second stage race of his career in Ussel on Sunday.
"I'm a pupil of Lance Armstrong since I rode the 2000 Tour de France with him at US Postal so I got to learn how to secure an overall classification," Vasseur said. The Frenchman was left behind from the Postal train in 2001 and quit the team afterwards, but Cédric and Lance got to talk to each other again during this year's Tour for the first time since then.
Now Vasseur is focussing on the World's. He'll captain the French team in Hamilton. He's also the best chance for France to get a medal in Canada. "But Paolo Bettini doesn't care about the winner of Paris-Corrèze," supposes Vasseur. Watch out, there's always a surprise guest in the breakaway for the world title and Vasseur definitely has the condition to be the one!
Photography
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- What's wrong with Baden Cooke's jersey?
- Baden Cooke is the leader of the points competition before stage 2
- Cédric Vasseur and Médéric Clain talk tactics before going in a breakaway together
- Médéric Clain is happy with his new Carnac cycling shoes
- Janek Tombak and Erki Putsep get a chance to speak Estonian at the start
- Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2r) looking nervous at the start
- Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2r) was race leader going into stage 2
- Top sprinters Jaan Kirsipuu and Baden Cooke were ready to fight in the climbs of centre of France in Paris-Correze
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches) was white faced at the finish after suffering from hunger flat
- Cedric Vasseur (Cofidis) salutes from the podium after his victory in stage 2
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches) best young rider
- Cedric Vasseur (Cofidis) on the podium with Laurent Fignon, race organiser
- Vasseur prepares the champagne while Chavanel and Agnolutto look on
- Cedric Vasseur (Cofidis) now in the leader's jersey
Results
1 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.23.40 (39.322 km/h) 2 Christophe Rinero (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 0.12 3 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 2.33 4 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 2.58 5 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 6 Mickael Pichon (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.59 7 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.26 8 Benoît Poilvet (Fra) Credit Agricole 4.32 9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 5.37 10 Philippe Koehler (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 7.01 11 Mathieu Sprick (Fra) French National U23 Team 12 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 13 Matthew Wilson (Aus) FDJeux.com 7.46 14 Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 11.37 15 Ludovic Auger (Fra) Big.Mat-Auber 93 12.33 16 Kilian Patour (Fra) French U23 National Team 22.38 17 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 38.24 18 Gert Vanderaerden (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 19 Alexei Sivakov (Rus) Big.Mat-Auber 93 20 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 21 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Rabobank TT III 22 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 23 Michael Rich (Ger) Gerolsteiner 38.28 24 Theo Eltink (Ned) Rabobank TT III 25 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank TT III 26 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 27 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 28 Yves Delarue (Fra) Big.Mat Auber 93 29 Jeremy Roy (Fra) FDJeux.com 30 Mathieu Claude (Fra) French U23 National Team 31 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) French National U23 Team 32 Pierre Bourquenoud (Swi) Jean Delatour 33 Bastiaan Giling (Ned) Rabobank TT III 34 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 35 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto-Domo 36 Andrey Mizourov (Kaz) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 37 Frederik Penne (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 38 Thierry De Groote (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 39 Alexei Markov (Rus) Lokomotiv 40 Ben Johnson (Aus) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 41 Pavel Broutt (Rus) Lokomotiv 42 Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole 43 Maxime Mederel (Fra) French National U23 Team 44 Geoffrey Lequatre (Fra) French National U23 Team 45 Leif Hoste (Bel) Lotto-Domo 46 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Lotto-Domo 47 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Gerolsteiner 48 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank TT III 49 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 50 Damien Monier (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 51 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 52 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Lokomotiv 53 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Rabobank TT III 54 Sébastien Talabardon (Fra) Big.Mat-Auber 93 55 Plamen Stoyanov (Bul) Big.Mat-Auber 93 56 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Lotto-Domo 57 Sergeï Krushevskiy (Uzb) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 58 Alexander Serov (Rus) Lokomotiv 59 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 60 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) French U23 National Team 61 Uwe Hardter (Ger) Gerolsteiner 62 Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 63 Niels Scheuneman (Ned) Rabobank TT III 64 Franck Pencole (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 65 Sébastien Talabardon (Fra) Big.Mat-Auber 93 66 Julien Guiborel (Fra) Credit Agricole 67 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Gerolsteiner 68 Axel Merckx (Bel) Lotto-Domo 69 Jörgen Bo Petersen (Den) Team fakta 70 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) FDJeux.com 71 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big.Mat-Auber 93 72 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 73 Gabriel Rasch (Nor) Team Ringerike 74 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team fakta 75 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 76 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Credit Agricole 77 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 78 Michael Skelde (Den) Team fakta 79 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo 80 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Credit Agricole 81 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Credit Agricole 82 Thomas Dekkers (Bel) Rabobank TT III 83 Stéphane Berges (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 84 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 85 Julien Mazet (Fra) French National U23 Team 86 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 87 Nicolas Dulac (Fra) Jean Delatour 88 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 89 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 90 Erkki Putsepp (Est) Ag2R-Prevoyance 91 Eddy Lembo (Fra) Palmans-Collstrop 92 Stéphane Barthe (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 93 Mark Scanlon (Irl) Ag2r-Prevoyance 94 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 95 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Jean Delatour 96 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 97 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Jean Delatour 98 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 99 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) Jean Delatour 100 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 101 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 102 Fredrik Modin (Swe) Team fakta 103 Eddy Seigneur (Fra) Jean Delatour 104 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère General classification after stage 2 1 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 8.23.20 2 Christophe Rinero (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 0.20 3 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 2.45 4 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.14 5 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance 6 Mickael Pichon (Fra) FDJeux.com 3.15 7 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.42 8 Benoit Poilvet (Fra) Crédit Agricole 4.48 9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 5.52 10 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) MBK-Oktos-Saint-Quentin 7.17 11 Mathieu Sprick (Fra) French National U23 Team 7.46 12 Matt Wilson (Aus) FDJeux.com 8.02 13 Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 8.31 14 Ludovic Auger (Fra) Big.Mat-Auber 93 11.53 15 Kilian Patour (Fra) French National U23 Team 12.49 16 Philippe Koehler (Fra) Palmans-Collstrop 19.11 17 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 23.38 18 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 38.38 19 Benny de Schrooder (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 38.39 20 Geert Vanderaerden (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 38.40
