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Châteauroux Classic de l'Indre Trophée Fenioux - 1.1
France, August 21, 2005
2004 Results Results Past winners
The friendly ghost is back
By Jean-François Quénet in Châteauroux
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Jimmy Casper hasn't been seen as a winner recently. His nickname is the 'friendly ghost', after he won four out of eight stages in the inaugural Tour of Germany back in 1999, when he outsprinted no less than Erik Zabel at the top of his art while being a neo-pro himself. But Casper couldn't make the Cofidis Tour de France team and he may not have killed himself in training either in July, as he acknowledged: "I was looking for some condition when I started the Tour du Limousin last week. I increased my shape by 10 percent every day and I'm now at around 85 percent of my capacities."
But that might be enough for a sprinter to still win a race. He actually claimed his third win of the year, succeeding Aleksandr Kushinsky on the record book of the newly created Classic de l'Indre, which was the post-Tour criterium of Châteauroux in the past.
The were a lot of moves in the race however. Bradley McGee (Francaise des Jeux), who hasn't raced since his second place on the Champs-Elysées, but is now gearing up for the Vuelta a España, was first to come into town after 126km of racing when he started the final nine laps pairing with Bretagne-Jean Floc'h's Stéphane Pétilleau. Their initiative gave birth to a front group of 37 riders, but the team Agritubel with young Aussie Ben Johnson brought it back.
No attack got more than a minute lead until Nicolas Vogondy (Crédit Agricole), Mikhail Timochin (Omnibike) and Vytautas Kaupas (Jartazi) went away with 20km to go. But Laurent Paumier of MrBookmaker.com was the last man away with 1.2km to go, and it had to be a bunch sprint of 100 riders since the wind wasn't blowing strongly enough. It was a tailwind at the end though, that's how Casper managed to keep some centimetres lead over Danilo Napolitano, who had won the Coppa Bernocchi last week in Italy.
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"It was close but I was lucky he came late," Casper commented. "I was active early into the race but fortunately I kept some energy for the end and it went all fine." Third place went to Jean-Patrick Nazon who was forced to pull out of the Tour de France without having a real chance to contest a bunch sprint like he won in 2003 in Paris and in 2004 in Wasquehal. "This result is so-so," the Ag2r rider said. "Now my goal is the World Championship. It's something interesting to focus on because the course suits the sprinters only every 5 or 7 years. But I still have to work a lot for that."
Casper finished 6th in Zolder in 2002, the last time the World Championship was really built for the sprinters. After winning in Châteauroux, he could re-consider lining up in Madrid, "but I'll wear the National French jersey only if I feel that I've got a chance to honour it properly", he said in front of another famous sprinter, former track rider Frédéric Magné who was the patron for the Classic de l'Indre.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- Dario Pieri has lost many kilos (20? 25?) since the Tour Down Under and recently moved from Lampre to LPR
- Rene Mandri, 21, from Estonia is a super talented trainee with Ag2r, working hard for JP Nazon before the bunch sprint
- Brad McGee gearing up for the Tour of Spain, is always ready for a chat with (Team) Cyclingnews.com
- Finnish cyclists Kimmo Kananen and Jussi Veikkanen meeting in the center of France
- A happy race winner Jimmy Casper (Cofidis) could re-consider focusing on the world championship
- Olympic champion Bradley McGee (Francaise des Jeux) was awarded by the town of Châteauroux after giving a high intensity into the race
- Danilo Napolitano (LPR) missed the win by a little margin
- RAGT still hasn't won a race before stopping at the end of the season but Emilien-Benoît Bergès was the most agressive rider in Châteauroux
Results
1 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.15.48 2 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team LPR 3 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 4 William Bonnet (Fra) Auber 93 5 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 6 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) L.A Aluminios - Liberty Seguros 7 Linas Balciunas (Ltu) Agritubel 8 Bobbie Traksel (Ned) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 9 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Crédit Agricole 10 Jonas Holmkvist (Swe) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 11 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 12 Renaud Dion (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 13 Ludovic Capelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 14 Bradley McGee (Aus) Française des Jeux 15 James Van Landschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrdiet Colnago 16 Michael Blanchy (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 17 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Auber 93 18 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 19 René Mandri (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 20 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 21 Kacper Sowinski (Pol) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 22 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 23 Jens Renders (Bel) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 24 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Jartazi Granville Team 25 Viacheslav Vilkov (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 26 Takehiro Mizutani (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 27 Aivaras Baranauskas (Ltu) Agritubel 28 Nicolas Crosbie (Fra) Agritubel 29 Camille Bouquet (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 30 Ivan Terenin (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 31 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 32 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 33 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 34 Sven Renders (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 35 Adriaan Helmantel (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 36 Tristan Valentin (Fra) Auber 93 37 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Agritubel 38 Julien Laidoun (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 39 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 40 Mikhail Mikheev (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 41 Rémy Di Grégorio (Fra) Française des Jeux 42 Rui Sousa (Por) L.A.Aluminios-Liberty Seguros 43 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance 44 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux 45 Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Team Cyclingnews.Com 46 Mario De Sarraga (Spa) Naturino Sapore Di Mare 47 Jakob Lorek (Pol) Amore & Vita-Beretta 48 Peter Woestenberg (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 49 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 50 Kane Oakley (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.Com 51 Nicolas Inaudi (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 52 Romain Cholet (Fra) Agritubel 53 Roman Luhovyy (Ukr) R.A.G.T Semences 54 Ian McLeod (RSA) Française des Jeux 55 David Bréard (Fra) Auber 93 56 David Boucher (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 57 Hector Guerra Garcia (Spa) L.A Aluminios - Liberty Seguros 58 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 59 Carlos Nozal Vega (Spa) L.A Aluminios - Liberty Seguros 60 Manuel Broco Hernani (Por) L.A.Aluminios-Liberty Seguros 61 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole 62 Johan Svensson (Swe) Jartazi Granville Team 63 Andrey Ptchelkin (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 64 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Crédit Agricole 65 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Amore & Vita-Beretta 66 Maint Berkenbosh (Ned) Trientalis Apac Team 67 Fabien Sanchez (Fra) Française des Jeux 40 pts 68 Folkert De Haan (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 50 69 Kazuo Inoue (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 50 70 Junya Sano (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 50 71 Mariano De Fino Silveiro (Ita) Naturino Sapore Di Mare 54 72 Tomasz Kloczko (Pol) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 54 73 Laurent Paumier (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 54 74 Vladislav Borisov (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 75 Nico Van Dijk (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 1.02 76 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 77 Thierry De Groote (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 1.03 78 Dmitri Konyshev (Rus) Team LPR 79 Glenn D'Hollander (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 1.22 80 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 81 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 1.35 82 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 1.51 83 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 84 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 85 Jordi Grau Sogas (Por) L.A Aluminios - Liberty Seguros 86 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 87 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 88 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Team LPR 89 Julien Loubet (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 90 Erki Pütsep (Est) AG2r Prévoyance 91 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 92 Shinri Suzuki (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 93 Glen Chadwick (Aus) Team Cyclingnews.com 94 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 95 Sébastien Minard (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 96 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 97 Stefan Wijnands (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 98 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 99 Stéphane Petilleau (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 100 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Auber 93 101 Laurent Mangel (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 102 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 103 Erwin Goenga (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 104 Sieger Haakma (Ned) Trientalis APAC Team 105 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 106 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Française des Jeux 107 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Agritubel 108 Hamish Robert Haynes (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 109 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Française des Jeux 110 Nuno Victorino Nelson (Por) L.A.Aluminios-Liberty Seguros 111 Tom Barras (GBr) Team Cyclingnews.com 112 Olivier Kaisen (Bel) R.A.G.T Semences 113 Xavier Herrine (Bel) R.A.G.T. Semences 114 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Crédit Agricole 115 Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel 116 Jean Marc Marino (Fra) Credit Agricole 117 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 118 Mikhail Timochin (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 119 Vytautas Kaupas (Ltu) Jartazi Granville Team 120 Thierry Marichal (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 121 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 122 Emilien Benoit Bergès (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 123 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 124 Dario Pieri (Ita) Lampre - Caffita 125 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita) Naturino - Sapore di Mare 126 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Credit Agricole 127 Michael Simms (Aus) Landbouwkrdiet Colnago Courtesy of Guy Dedieu and cyclismag.com
Past winners
2004 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Rus) Amore e Vita-Beretta
