Ravard claims Circuit Sarthe finale

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Luis Leon Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne celebrated his start-to-finish overall win at the Circuit Cyclist Sarthe, while AG2R's Anthony Ravard won his second stage to close out the race. Sanchez, who currently leads the International Cycling Union's rankings, had won the opening stage and never gave up the lead in the race.

Ravard had earlier won the second stage of the race, as well as Friday's 171km finale from Le Mans to Sille-le-Guillaume where he bested race leader Luis Leon Sanchez and Julien Simon (Saur - Sojasun) for the victory.

Only 78 riders took to the start, which was delayed five minutes on a beautiful, sunny day. Only about 20km into the stage a French trio escaped: Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Stephane Auge (Cofidis) and Maxime Mederal (Big Mat Auber 93).

While their lead never extended much beyond two minutes, the trio nevertheless were able to stay away until the third of seven laps of the closing 10.2km finishing circuit. Another group of five got way but were kept close to the peloton and were absorbed with only two kilometres to go, setting up the sprint finish.