The European season starts: GP d'Ouverture & Étoile de Bessèges

[dlwssonic]

Go dupont?? lol

 

[Grzdylu]

victoire de Samuel Dumoulin !

 

[roundabout]

Another Marcato second place

 

[classicomano]

Lol @ Marcato coming 2nd. Guy is cursed.

 

[will10]

1- Samuel DUMOULIN (Cofidis)
2- Marco MARCATO (Vacansoleil-DCM)
3- Arthur VICHOT (FDJ)
4- Jérémy GALLAND
5- Davide MALACARNE
6- Romain HARDY
7- Juien GUAY
8- Mickael CHEREL
9- Peter SERRY
10- Bert DE WALLE
11- Rémy DI GREGORIO
12- Romzin BARDET
13- David LE LAY

 

[Grzdylu]

1- Samuel DUMOULIN (Cofidis)
2- Marco MARCATO (Vacansoleil-DCM)
3- Arthur VICHOT (FDJ)
4- Jérémy GALLAND
5- Davide MALACARNE
6- Romain HARDY
7- Juien GUAY
8- Mickael CHEREL
9- Peter SERRY
10- Bert DE WALLE
11- Rémy DI GREGORIO
12- Romzin BARDET
13- David LE LAY

 

[El Pistolero]

Lol @ Marcato coming 2nd. Guy is cursed.

Nope, Dumoulin is cursed now

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Traksel in the top 20. Interesting. After a nerve went dead in his hand last year I thought he would never come back at a decent level.

 

[theyoungest]

Traksel in the top 20. Interesting. After a nerve went dead in his hand last year I thought he would never come back at a decent level.

Don't think that's a career threatening injury? Breschel is currently riding around with a robo hand, kept in one piece by bolts and screws.

Traksel has had every possibly injury under the sun though, that's true.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

For a long time it was questionable wether the feeling/control would ever come back in his hand.

He could not hold his bike properly for a long time, steering was very hard if not impossible. His career was at risk, it was in some interviews.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

What DT said, also Marcato, 2nd again ? How ****ed must this guy be?

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Damn Marcato.. But just wait and see, he'll have a great season

 

[FujiAnton]

Dumoulin was clearly the favourite in that group, yes i know that Marcato is the man of the 2nd places, but today he did the best place he can do sprinting against a guy like Dumoulin.

Bardet was the best young in his first race as a pro, 12th place, nice.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

What to expect?

- two to three second places for Marcato

I told you so.

 

[Christian]

So I did go to see the race and it was pretty fun. I was positively impressed by the amount of people, nice to see so many come out. Last year I went to see the ITT of Paris-Nice and there were a lot less. That was during the week though IIRC.

Anyways, what you might not know is that Di Gregorio set Dumoulin up for his victory, he attacked 1 or 2 km from the finish to force the others to chase. The sprint was launched from a long way out (it was a really long, straight finish), and Dumoulin easily took it.

Also there was an attack from Mickael Cherel and one other rider that sounded like it could have stayed away. All in all it must have been some pretty interesting racing with attacks flying left and right, at least that's what they said over the radio. They said France 3 was going to do a report on it at 19:00 but I missed it ... maybe it'll be online in the next days.

Afterwards it was a free for all in the team-bus section. I'd never quite experienced that, usually there are at least some parts blocked off but here there was nothing. Some riders who arrived later and had their bus at the back of the line had a hard time to get there through the crowd. I saw both of the luxembourgish riders, who both did pretty well, so overall a good day. I also saw Rémy Di Gregorio, man he has a cute girlfriend! Niko Eekhout also rode by me I think.

Here are some photos:

Probably unknown by most people on the forum, Daniel Mangeas is the famous "voice of the Tour", announcer of pretty much any race in France.

Guest of honour, Raymond Poulydor:

The finish. Sorry I pressed a little too early but you can already see Dumoulin start celebrating:

Bobbie Traksel leading home the second group:

 

[palmerq]

christian you funny fellow you put raymond poulidor 2nd in the post...... :S

 

[roundabout]

Nice battle for the minor places there

 

[greenedge]

Nice win by Dumoulin. Marcarto already racking up his points that will see him get over a 1000 CQ points. Nice performance by Vichot ( i wanted him in my CQ team but... ) and Bardet in his first pro race ( who i closely monitor ).

How come Pinot lost 6 seconds???

 

[greenedge]

Lol Taaramae

His team ended up winning and his attacks probably dropped people like Romain Feillu. Cofidis had two cards to play as simple as that.

 

[Von Mises]

His team ended up winning and his attacks probably dropped people like Romain Feillu. Cofidis had two cards to play as simple as that.

Rough and short translation from Taaramae´s blog: " Already before the race I was pretty sure that I dont want to sleep in the bunch. Also, we had a joker (Gregorio) for last 1 km, so there was nothing to loose…

It was quite cold and I was dressed like an eskimo: leggings, thick gloves, two hats, long shirts, short sleeved shirt and long sweat shirt and more. After the start was given I watched the game for 2 kms, then decided to attack. Five men followed, but we were reeled in. Put another attack and for a while I was alone… At the top of the hill 15 men were ahaed, on descent I got about 15 second advantage, but soon after 5 other guys joined. So we raced 1-2minutes ahead of peloton.
After first mountaintop I attacked on descent and got about 30 seconds. 10 km´s I was alone, then was joined by 4 other guys.

Afterwards I helped Samuel as possible. For exampüle I gave him one gel. 15 kilometers before finish exaxtly the same spot as last year, I took it easy.

For some reason I was pretty sure that Sam will win, and it went well. He even thanked me, because during last training camp he did not want to come here. He told that course is too hard for him, but I persuaded to think over and so, here we are…

I was very pleased with the event itself, form is better than previous year."

 

[Christian]

Pretty nice video summary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LfFducUSwU

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Good action on the road from the look of it. Thanks for posting.

 

[Samson]

Any chance of Étoile de Bessèges being broadcast?

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Any chance of Étoile de Bessèges being broadcast?

No. French regional TV stations usually provide 5-minutes highlights in the evening, that's it. Directvélo will have a ticker.

 

[roundabout]

Seems it will be very cold. Maybe even snow on some of the higher climbs if the weather doesn't improve.