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6th Classic Loire Atlantique - 1.2
France, March 18, 2005
2004 Results Results Past winners
Former Euskaltel star makes Agritubel happy
By Jean-François Quénet in Basse-Goulaines
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Remember the man who beat no less than Lance Armstrong in the Critérium International three years ago? At the time, Alberto Martinez was an up and coming talent riding for his local team Euskaltel. After a quiet year with Relax, he's back in the country where he got most of his results: with the new division 2 team Agritubel whose owner is also originally from Spain - that's why Sir José Fornes wanted a Spaniard in the squad. "They have offered me the opportunity to give a new start to my career and I'm happy to thank them with a victory," Martinez said after winning the 6th Classic Loire-Atlantique.
The weather was beautiful with no wind in the west part of the Loire valley, thus it was difficult for a breakaway to succeed. The only one that managed to get more than one minute lead was formed by Eddy Seigneur (RAGT), Timothée Lefrançois (U Nantes-Atlantique), Gaylord Cumont (Oddass-Diemme), Evgeny Sokolov (Omnibike), Noan Lelarge (Bretagne-Jean Floc'h) and Sylvain Cheval (Côtes d'Armor-Maître Jacques). They took off with 48km to go and got caught with 10 to go. "There were 8km remaining when I tried to go alone," Martinez said. His directeur sportif Denis Leproux, who was a professional with Z in the late 80s and again with BigMat in the late 90s after a 10 years break as an amateur, was confident: "I knew about Alberto's abilities as a time triallist, it gave us a good chance of winning."
Ag2r was the main team chasing during the last 50km - not to say the only team chasing. "Unfortunately we never caught Martinez and he deserves his win," Alexandre Usov, 3rd, commented. Ag2r still hasn't taken its first win this year, meanwhile Agritubel has scored three in a row in the 1.2 category, with Florent Brard claiming the Monts du Lubéron and Paris-Troyes during Paris-Nice. "We still hope for a Tour de France wild card," Martinez added, although it looks unlikely that ASO will invite a 22nd team in addition to the 20 Pro Teams and Ag2r.
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Martinez is right on time. "I had planned to be on top for the Critérium International again," he said. "I hope to do well again in one week time. I've won this race before and I'm highly motivated again."
Another Spaniard with the same first name, also 30 this year, paired with Martinez on the podium: Alberto Benito from Portuguese team Barbot-Pascoal is also a former big hope of a big team, as he used to win sprints for Banesto. With the first Frenchman, Alexandre Pichot of Bouygues Telecom's feeder team Vendée U, lying 7th, the Classic Loire-Atlantique was very international this year.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Jean-Francois Quenet
- Bouygues Telecom's Mickael Pichon who was badly injured in last year's Dauphiné visited the race before he resumes racing in two weeks time at the GP de Rennes
- Alexandre Usov interviewed post-race
- The most agressive rider was 20 year-old Russian Evgeny Sokolov
- The final podium: Alberto Benito (2nd), Alberto Martinez (1st), Alexandre Usov (3rd) and Evgeny Sokolov (most aggressive) for a very international Classic Loire-Atlantique
Results - 173 km
1 Alberto Martinez (Spa) Agritubel 3.54.50 (44.2 km/h) 2 Alberto Benito (Spa) Barbot-Pascoal 0.12 3 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance 4 John Nilsson (Swe) Auber 93 5 Roman Luhovyy (Ukr) R.A.G.T Semences 6 Igor Abakoumov (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 7 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Vendée U 8 Jonas Holmkvist (Swe) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 9 Ivan Terenin (Rus) Omnibike Dinamo Moscou 10 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Agritubel 11 Médéric Clain (Fra) Team Oddass-Diemme 12 Aivaras Baranauskas (Ltu) VC Roubaix 13 Mathieu Rompion (Fra) Vendée U 14 Serge Pauwels (Ned) Rabobank Continental 15 Tim Cassidy (Irl) VC La Pomme-Marseille 16 Tom Veelers (Ned) Rabobank Continental 17 Remco Van Der Ven (Ned) Rabobank Continental 18 Julien Mazet (Fra) Auber 93 19 Cyrille Noël (Fra) Côtes d'Armor-Maître Jacques 20 Jonathan Dayus (GBr) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 21 William Bonnet (Fra) Auber 93 22 Romain Paillard (Fra) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 23 Mikhail Mikheev (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 24 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Agritubel 25 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 26 Alexandre Cabrera (Fra) AVC Aix 27 Renaud Dion (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 28 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 29 Ludovic Poilvet (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 30 Christophe Diguet (Fra) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 31 David Tanner (Aus) VC Roubaix 32 Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank Continental 33 Maxim Rudenko (Ukr) Jartazi Granville Team 34 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 35 Takehiro Mizutani (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 36 Vytautas Kaupas (Ltu) Jartazi Granville Team 37 Ruslan Sambris (Mda) VC La Pomme-Marseille 38 Freddy Ravaleu (Fra) Team Oddass-Diemme 39 Georges Toussaint (Fra) Team Oddass-Diemme 40 Celestino Pinho (Por) Barbot - Pascoal 41 Celestino Pinho (Por) Barbot - Pascoal 42 Erki Pütsep (Est) AG2r Prévoyance 43 Leonardo Luque (Fra) Jartazi-Revor 44 Tarmo Raudsepp (Est) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 45 Julien Guay (Fra) Vendée U 46 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 47 Jamie Burrow (GBr) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 48 Maxim Karpatchev (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 49 Timothée Lefrançois (Fra) Team U Nantes-Atlantique 50 Joel Pearson (Aus) Côtes d'Armor-Maître Jacques 51 Bartosz Kolendo (Pol) VC La Pomme-Marseille 52 Hubert Dupont (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 53 Stef Clement (Ned) Rabobank Continental 54 Stéphane Barthe (Fra) Team Oddass-Diemme 55 Andrey Pchelkin (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 56 David Peribanez (Fra) Barbot-Pascoal 57 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 58 Darryl Impey (RSA) VC La Pomme-Marseille 59 Kimmo Kananen (Fin) Amore & Vita - Beretta - Polska 60 Christophe Rinero (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 61 Thijs Zonneveld (Ned) AVC Aix 62 Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel 0.26 63 Tristan Valentin (Fra) Auber 93 64 Antoine Perche (Fra) VC Roubaix 65 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Vendée U 66 Simon Gerrans (Aus) AG2r Prévoyance 67 Sylvain Cheval (Fra) Côtes d'Armor-Maître Jacques 68 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel 69 Thierry David (Fra) VC La Pomme-Marseille 70 Fernando Sousa (Por) Barbot - Pascoal 71 David Bréard (Fra) Auber 93 72 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 73 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Vendée U 74 Yann Huguet (Fra) AVC Aix 75 Jérôme Bouchet (Fra) VC Roubaix 76 Antoine Dalibard (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 77 Lionel Faure (Fra) VC La Pomme-Marseille 78 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 79 Benoit Salmon (Fra) Agritubel 80 Stéphane Bergès (Fra) Agritubel 81 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) Omnibike Dinamo Moscou 82 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Côtes d'Armor-Maître Jacques 0.35 83 Eric Berthou (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 84 Thomas Nosari (Fra) VC Roubaix 85 Carl Naibo (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 86 Mathieu Perget (Fra) VC Roubaix 87 Yevgueni Sokolov (Rus) Omnibike Dinamo Moscou 88 Gaylord Cumont (Fra) Team Oddass-Diemme 89 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Bridgestone Anchor 90 Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h 5.32 91 Eddy Seigneur (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 92 Nicolas Crosbie (Fra) Agritubel
Past winners
2004 Erki Pütsep (Est) Ag2r Prévoyance 2003 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 2002 Rune Jogert (Nor)
