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26th Route du Sud - 2.3
France, June 22-25, 2002
2001 Results Stage list Preview Start list Past winners
The stages
- Stage 1 - June 22: Castres - Castesarrasin, 180.8 km
- Stage 2 - June 23: Castesarrasin - Saint-Gaudens, 180.8 km
- Stage 3 - June 24: Aston - Plateau de Beille ITT, 18.1 km
- Stage 4 - June 25: Luzenac
- Ax 3 Domaines, 189.5 km
Preview
Fourteen teams will start today's 26th edition of the Route du Sud, the last significant French stage race before the Tour de France. The race covers 570km in the Midi-Pyrenees area.
The Route du Sud was born in 1977 as the brainchild of former rider Jacques Esclassan. The race was originally known as the Tour du Tarn, became the Tour Midi-Pyrénées in 1982 and took its current name in 1988.
The head of the race organisation, Francis Auriac, has aimed to create a high-quality route keeping in mind that French teams will use this race as final preparation for the French national championships at the end of June and the Tour de France.
The four-day race should suit the climbers, with two mountain stages; an individual time trial up the Plateau de Beille on Monday and a 190km stage to Ax-les-Thermes on Tuesday that takes in the first category col de Coudons and second category col de Chioula.
Prominent riders in this year's Route du Sud include Laurent Jalabert (CSC-Tiscali), who hopes to repeat his 1996 win, former world champion Laurent Brochard and Erik Dekker (Rabobank), currently ranked fourth in the world.
Start List
Cofidis Credit Agricole
1 Andrei Kivilev (Kaz) 11 Frédéric Bessy (Fra)
2 Médéric Clain (Fra) 12 Sébastien Hinault (Fra)
3 Claude Lamour (Fra) 13 Thor Hushovd (Nor)
4 Nico Mattan (Bel) 14 Christopher Jenner (NZl)
5 David Millar (GBr) 15 Stuart O'Grady (Aus)
6 Janek Tombak (Est) 16 Benoît Poilvet (Fra)
7 Guido Trentin (Ita) 17 Jonathan Vaughters (USA)
8 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) 18 Jens Voigt (Ger)
Fassa Bortolo Ibanesto.Com
21 Wladimir Belli (Ita) 31 José-Luis Arrieta (Spa)
23 Serhiy Honchar (Ukr) 32 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol)
25 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) 33 Thomas Brozyna (Pol)
26 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) 34 Francisco Vila (Spa)
27 Mateo Tosatto (Ita) 35 Koldo Gil (Spa)
28 Denis Zanette (Ita) 36 Pablo Lastras (Spa)
37 Juan-Miguel Mercado (Spa)
38 Santi Blanco (Spa)
Jean Delatour La Française Des Jeux
41 Laurent Brochard (Fra) 51 Régis Lhuiller (Fra)
42 Stéphane Auge (Fra) 52 Thomas Bodo (Fra)
43 Jérôme Bernard (Fra) 53 Baden Cooke (Aus)
44 Gilles Bouvard (Fra) 54 Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
45 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) 55 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra)
46 Patrice Halgand (Fra) 56 Bradley Mcgee (Aus)
47 Christophe Laurent (Fra) 57 Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra)
48 Bruno Thibout (Fra) 58 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra)
Bigmat. Auber 93 Ag2R Prevoyance
61 Félix Garcia Casas (Spa) 71 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa)
62 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) 72 Stéphane Berges (Fra)
63 Xavier Jan (Fra) 73 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus)
64 Cyril Saugrain (Fra) 74 Mikel Astarloza (Spa)
65 Aitor Kintana (Spa) 75 Christophe Oriol (Fra)
66 Sébastien Talabardon (Fra) 76 Nicolas Portal (Fra)
67 Lylian Lebreton (Fra) 77 Laurent Estadieu (Fra)
68 Alexei Sivakov (Rus) 78 Ludovic Turpin
Bonjour Lotto-Adecco
81 Walter Beneteau (Fra) 91 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned)
82 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) 92 Serge Baguet (Bel)
83 Damien Nazon (Fra) 93 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel)
84 Mickaël Pichon (Fra) 94 Christophe Brandt (Bel)
85 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) 95 Ief Verbrugghe (Bel)
86 Fabrice Salanson (Fra) 96 Tom Stremersch (Bel)
87 François Simon (Fra) 97 Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus)
88 Thomas Voeckler 98 Aat Vierhouten (Ned)
Rabobank Team CSC-Tiscali
101 Erik Dekker (Ned) 111 Laurent Jalabert (Fra)
102 Levi Leipheimer (USA) 112 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra)
103 Cohen Boerman (Ned) 113 Raphaël Jeune (Fra)
104 Bram De Groot (Ned) 114 Olivier Asmaker (Fra)
105 Addy Engels (Ned) 115 Michaël Blaudzun (Den)
106 Ronald Mutsaars (Ned) 116 Manuel Calvente (Spa)
107 Gricha Niermann (Ger) 117 Paul Van Hyfte (Bel)
108 Mathé Pronk (Ned) 118 Danny Jonasson (Den)
Domo-Farm Frites Team Telekom
121 Dave Bruylandts (Bel) 131 Robert Bartko (Ger)
122 Servais Knaven (Ned) 132 Jens Heppner (Ger)
123 Tomas Konecny (Cze) 133 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger)
124 Axel Merckx (Bel) 134 Matthias Kessler (Ger)
125 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) 135 David Kopp (Ger)
126 Bram Tankink (Ned) 136 Dirk Reichl (Ger)
127 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) 137 Stefan Schumacher (Ger)
128 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) 138 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz)
Past winners
The Route du Sud began officially in 1988 as a Cat 2.4 event. It was previously known as the Tour du Tarn (1977-81) and then Tour Midi-Pyrénees (1982-87). 2001 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2000 Tomasz Brozyna (Pol) Banesto 1999 Jonathan Vaughters (USA) US Postal 1998 Armand de las Cuevas (Fra) Banesto 1997 Patrick Jonker (Aus) Rabobank 1996 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE 1995 Laurent Dufaux (Sui) Festina 1994 Alvaro Mejia (Col) Motorola 1993 Eric Boyer (Fra) GAN 1992 Arturas Kasputis (Lit) Postobon 1991 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Helvetia 1990 Yves Bonnamour (Fra) Castorama 1989 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Z Peugeot 1988 Ronan Pensec (Fra) Z Peugeot 1987 Régis Clere (Fra) Teka 1986 Niki Rüttimann (Swi) La Vie Claire 1985 Stephen Roche (Ire) La Redoute 1984 Pascal Simon (Fra) Peugeot 1983 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot 1982 Francesco Moser (Ita) Famucine 1981 Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra) Peugeot 1980 Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Peugeot 1979 Yvon Bertin (Fra) Renault 1978 Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (Fra) Gitane 1977 Jacques Esclassan (Fra) Peugeot Past winners courtesy of Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
