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Bayern Rundfahrt
Photo ©: Schaaf

 UCI codes explained

Tour du Limousin - 2.1

France, August 21-24, 2007

Main Page    Results   Overall standings    Previous Stage   Next Stage

Stage 2 - August 22: Droux – Uzerche , 187.4 km

French big hope Pierre Rolland grabs first European success

Pierrick Fedrigo leads over Oscar Pereiro

By Jean-François Quénet in Uzerche

Pierre Roland (Crédit-Agricole)
Photo ©: Régis Garnier
(Click for larger image)

It was a day in hell for the peloton but a day in paradise for French youngster Pierre Rolland from Crédit Agricole. The 20 year-old won stage two of the Tour du Limousin, prevailing in torrential rain and temperatures barely 12°C. Bouygues Telecom's Pierrick Fedrigo overtook Philippe Gilbert's lead in the general classification, while Oscar Pereiro, now 2nd on GC at 6 seconds, has clearly put himself in contention for the overall win.

"We were put under pressure from the start and we paid for the loss of Benoît Vaugrenard at the end, but the race isn't over yet", Gilbert said after the stage. He was in danger after 40 kilometers of racing because he had a flat tyre on a hill while attacks were going up the road, mainly with Pereiro, Fedrigo – who punctured as well – and French champion Christophe Moreau returning to competition at the Tour du Limousin after his post-Tour break.

Française des Jeux worked hard to bring back a breakaway of 22 riders. They got some help from Cofidis who had also missed the move. After a few moments of panic, the bunch was all together again at km 50. "I was in that break and as soon as we were getting caught, I attacked strongly again", Rolland explained. He went away with Guillaume Levarlet (Auber 93) who is on the edge of joining a ProTour team after showing himself in the front at all the races recently and Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Armor Lux) who also aims at a ride in a bigger squad after breaking away so many times.

Guillaume Levarlet
Photo ©: JF Quenet
(Click for larger image)

The gap for the leaders went up to seven minutes while FdJ controlled the situation behind the trio. With 30 km to go, Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) tried to go across, but on the Côte de Vigeois, with 19 km to go, Rolland went away solo in pursuit of the stage win. There was a superb attack in the bunch by Pereiro, Fedrigo and French cyclo-cross rider Clément L'Hotellerie of Skil-Shimano. FdJ was left without Sandy Casar, who was suffering from a back problem and without Vaugrenard. The on-form French time trial champion for was forced to pull out because of a crash with 70 km to go. While the team worked hard to bring the chasing three back before the finish, they were ultimately unsuccessful and were left with 17 seconds between the duo Fedrigo-Pereiro and Gilbert's group on the line. Since Duret and Augé had been brought back in the finale, Fedrigo grabbed 4 seconds bonus for 3rd place and became the new leader.

"I'm still bitter to have lost the Tour du Limousin by one second last year", said Fedrigo who had won the race in 2004. "It's never easy to win this race and I expect hard battles until the finish on Friday. I've had some ups and downs during the Tour de France. Now it's nice for me and my team to wear the yellow jersey here. I always come back to this race with high ambitions but I've noticed that Pereiro is also here to win. We got on well when we rode together to the finish today."

The uphill finish of Uzerche will be remembered as Rolland's first pro win in Europe. He had won a stage at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon for his pro debuts this year in January. "But this is the first real one," he said. "For one month, I've been close to winning but I placed myself 2nd, 4th, 7th… It was time to make it. It's an enormous joy to become a winner. It comes because of a lot of work. I've rarely done a race in such conditions. There wasn't a single meter of flat road. With the rain, the wind and the cold, we had no reason to ride faster than 36km/h average. I came here with the intention of winning a stage. It's been my luck to miss yesterday's breakaway."

Rolland is a very classy rider hailing from Orléans on the Loire river one hour south of Paris. This is a name to remember for the future.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Jean-Francois Quenet

Images by Régis Garnier/www.velofotopro.com

Results

1 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                       5.04.14 (36.96 km/h)
2 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber                                                0.36
3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                       2.53
4 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                          
5 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil - Shimano                                      2.55
6 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance                                          3.10
7 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel                                                     
8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                              
9 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                       
10 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber                                                        
11 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel                                                 
12 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                              
13 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux                                          
14 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                   
15 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                    
16 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole                                            
17 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                        
18 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                           
19 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                           
20 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                          
21 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                      
22 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                          
23 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team                                            
24 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux                                        
25 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                  
26 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                            
27 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                           
28 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel                                                3.17
29 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel - Action                                               
30 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team                                          
31 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                               
32 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole                                        
33 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber                                                      
34 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                            
35 Tanel Kangert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                              
36 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                           
37 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel - Action                                            
38 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                           
39 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux                                            
40 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                         
41 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel                                                  
42 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                       
43 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Auber                                                       
44 David Deroo (Fra) Skil - Shimano                                                 
45 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel                                                      
46 Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Fra) French National Team                              
47 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team                                        
48 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                             
49 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                              
50 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom                                        3.31
51 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                   3.46
52 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                      4.15
53 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                      4.21
54 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                          
55 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                 4.23
56 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                        4.24
57 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel                                             4.27
58 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                        4.58
59 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber                                                   5.31
60 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel - Action                                           5.43
61 Carl Naïbo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                             5.50
62 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                     
63 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel                                                6.12
64 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                             
65 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada         6.20
66 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada            
67 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada         
68 Kazuki Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada               
69 Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux                                   6.29
70 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                   6.39
71 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team                                7.05
72 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                        8.24
73 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                          9.35
74 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                  10.57
75 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                      
76 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux                                 13.09
77 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                             
78 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil - Shimano                                                    
79 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                                
80 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                           
81 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux                                             
82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel - Action                                            
83 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                    
84 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                            
85 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                            
86 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team                                            
87 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team                                     13.14
88 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada      13.23
89 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada                 
90 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                      
91 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada        13.24
92 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel                                                    
93 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada     18.56
94 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                          
95 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel - Action                                        20.57
96 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel - Action                                           
DNF Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                          
DNF Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                      
DNF Francesco Bellotti (Ita) Crédit Agricole                                        
DNF Maxime Bouet (Fra) French National Team                                         
DNF Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                
DNF Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Skil - Shimano                                             
DNF Jin Long (Chn) Skil - Shimano                                                   
DNF Fang Xu (Chn) Skil - Shimano                                                    
DNF Yoshimasa Hirose (Jpn) Skil - Shimano                                           
DNF Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                             
DNF Alex Howes (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                            
DNF Kilian Patour (Fra) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                         
 
Teams
 
1 Crédit Agricole                                                           15.19.02
2 Auber 93                                                                      0.43
3 Bouygues Telecom                                                              2.53
4 Caisse d'Epargne                                                                  
5 Bretagne-Armor Lux                                                            3.10
6 Agritubel                                                                     3.17
7 AG2r Prévoyance                                                                   
8 Française des Jeux                                                                
9 Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                                               3.24
10 French National Team                                                                 
11 Roubaix Lille Metropole                                                      4.30
12 Intel - Action                                                               5.57
13 Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada                                 12.40
14 Skil-Shimano                                                                13.01
15 Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                                         22.25
 
General classification after stage 2
 
1 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                    8.56.38
2 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                      0.06
3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux                                     0.12
4 Clément Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil - Shimano                                      0.17
5 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                        0.27
6 Mickael Delage (Fra) Française des Jeux                                       0.57
7 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Crédit Agricole                                         1.03
8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                          1.05
9 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                   
10 Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                           
11 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                       1.08
12 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                           1.10
13 David Lelay (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                       1.12
14 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                      1.15
15 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                         
16 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel                                                  
17 Carl Naïbo (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                             3.51
18 Romain Villa (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                         6.25
19 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                         8.25
20 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Auber                                               9.07
21 Maryan Hary (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                          9.21
22 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                       11.10
23 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux                                        11.15
24 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance                                        11.48
25 Niels Brouzes (Fra) Auber                                                   11.50
26 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel                                                    
27 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                        
28 Stéphane Bonsergent (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                   
29 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                              
30 Rémi Cusin (Fra) French National Team                                            
31 Michael Lange (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                          
32 Vincent Jérôme (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                            
33 Jean-Luc Delpech (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                      
34 Cédric Pineau (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                      
35 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel                                                 
36 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                    
37 Jean Mespoulède (Fra) Auber                                                 11.57
38 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Intel - Action                                            
39 Frédéric Bessy (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                           
40 Maxime Méderel (Fra) Auber                                                       
41 Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Fra) French National Team                              
42 Denis Robin (Fra) Agritubel                                                      
43 Lilian Jégou (Fra) Française des Jeux                                            
44 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom                                            
45 Benoît Salmon (Fra) Agritubel                                                    
46 Blaise Sonnery (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                             
47 David Deroo (Fra) Skil - Shimano                                                 
48 Paul Brousse (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                       
49 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole                                        
50 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Intel - Action                                               
51 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                              
52 Tanel Kangert (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                              
53 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) French National Team                                        
54 Anthony Roux (Fra) French National Team                                     12.07
55 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom                                       12.10
56 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                  12.22
57 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                     12.55
58 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                     13.01
59 Sébastien Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                          
60 Florian Vachon (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                13.03
61 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                       13.04
62 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada       13.35
63 Paul Moucheraud (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                       13.38
64 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Intel - Action                                          14.23
65 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                                14.30
66 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel                                               14.52
67 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada    15.00
68 Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux                                  15.09
69 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                  15.19
70 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra) French National Team                               15.45
71 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Crédit Agricole                                       17.04
72 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone                  19.37
73 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bretagne - Armor Lux                                      
74 Léo Fortin (Fra) French National Team                                       21.49
75 Arnaud Gérard (Fra) Française des Jeux                                           
76 Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                            
77 Florent Brard (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                                             
78 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance                                                
79 Arnaud Lesvenan (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                    
80 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux                                      
81 Brice Feillu (Fra) French National Team                                     21.54
82 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr) Intel - Action                                       21.59
83 Mickael Larpe (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                                 22.03
84 Junya Sano (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada                 
85 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada           
86 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel                                               22.04
87 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada             
88 Peter Stetina (USA) Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                     27.36
89 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada          
90 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Intel - Action                                      29.37
91 Sebastian Skiba (Pol) Intel - Action                                             
92 Kazuki Inoue (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada          32.07
93 Samuel Plouhinec (Fra) Agritubel                                            35.10
94 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Auber                                                  36.14
95 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Nippo Corporation - Meitan Honpo Co LTD - Asada        37.03
96 Ji Cheng (Chn) Skil - Shimano                                               38.56
 
Team classification
 
1 Crédit Agricole                                                           26.49.00
2 Française des Jeux                                                            2.41
3 Bouygues Telecom                                                              3.05
4 Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone                                               8.19
5 Caisse d'Epargne                                                             13.40
6 Bretagne-Armor Lux                                                           14.38
7 AG2r Prévoyance                                                              14.51
8 Agritubel                                                                    25.30
9 Auber                                                                        33.38
10 France                                                                      36.19
11 Roubaix Lille Metropole                                                     37.25
12 Intel - Action                                                              38.52
13 Nippo Corporation-Meitan Honpo Co LTD-Asada                                 44.10
14 Skil-Shimano                                                                51.45
15 Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle                                         55.20