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

[Von Mises]

lol, funny interview:

Who do you support today?

- Team Europe ... Europa .... what's the team we support again?

(husband): Europcar.

- Europcar. Thomas Voeckler.

So you are not an expert in cycling?

- No, I am an expert!

So who is going to win today?

- Ah, I have no idea, I don't know ...

From Taaramae blog: "Probably there will be another group finish, but tommorow (today) if I feel good, I´ll try to attack on last hill 9 km before finish. Last year I had exactly same plan, I and Voeckler attacked , but our duo lasted only couple of kilometers."



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[greenedge]

Nice work by Nacer.

In regards to FDJ i hope they develop Demare. Hopefully he can put in a good showing at Qatar.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

weather will not be great, it seems from prediction.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Zero degrees, a lot of wind and snow. Did not start: Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R–La Mondiale), Freddy Bichot (Véranda Rideau-Super U) and Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller)

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

If I understand the ticker correctly, there is a protest among the riders, they don't want to go. For sure is that the stage has been cut by 36 km due to the weather. It's now 100k's.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

The stage is shortened to 60km....the race hasn't started yet, seems to be problematic getting all riders to the start line, as all of them don't fit into the cars...

 

[TeoSheva]

The stage is shortened to 60km....the race hasn't started yet, seems to be problematic getting all riders to the start line, as all of them don't fit into the cars...

now they started.. only 58km of racing!

 

[Kwibus]

So any idea what's going on? Snow, rain, storm.. it all sounds really good.

Besides the crying riders.

 

[Christian]

Wow this sounds like one big clusterf***. It appears some riders decided to continue racing and some refused. Anthony Ravard attacked twice but got reeled in and cursed out in the peloton for attacking

This would have been a nice cyclosportive ... 60 km flat, 20km/h average

 

[jens_attacks]

lame that they decided to race 60 km for nothing,they should have stop it in the first place

 

[TeoSheva]

all togheter, 3km to go

 

[TeoSheva]

 

[jens_attacks]

kittel it is

 

[TeoSheva]

1 Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i) !
2 Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM)
3 Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat)
4 Daniele Colli (Team Type 1-Sanofi)
5 Justin Jules (Véranda Rideau-Super U)
6 Michael Van Staeyen (Topsport Vlaanderen)
7 Jempy Drucker (Accent Jobs–Willems Veranda’s)
8 Sébastien Chavanel (Europcar)

 

[Kwibus]

Looks like a boring stage.

grats to Kittel though.

 

[Christian]

Everyone got a result even though from the ticker it sounded like some riders had quit

http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/17053-etoile-de-besseges-et-2-classements.html

 

[Le breton]

..........
This would have been a nice cyclosportive ... 60 km flat, 20km/h average

In Aix-en-provence you aren't too far from Bessèges. Did you go for a training ride today? How many km? How fast? What did you think of the weather conditions? Any black ice on the roads?

Classement de la 2e étape :
1 KITTEL Marcel Project 1t4i GER les 58 km en 01h33'29'' (moy. 37.23 km/h) 10''
2 BOECKMANS Kris Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling BEL 01h33'29'' 6''
3 * BOUHANNI Nacer FDJ - Big Mat FRA 01h33'29'' 4''
4 COLLI Daniele Team Type 1 - Sanofi ITA 01h33'29''
5 JULES Justin Veranda Rideau U FRA 01h33'29''
6 VAN STAEYEN Michael Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator BEL 01h33'29''
7 DRUCKER Jempy Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda` LUX 01h33'29''
8 CHAVANEL Sébastien Team Europcar FRA 01h33'29''
9 DUMOULIN Samuel Cofidis Le Crédit en Ligne FRA 01h33'29''
10 * VAN ASBROECK Tom Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator BEL 01h33'29''


Lire la suite sur DirectVelo.com : http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/17053-etoile-de-besseges-et-2-classements.html#ixzz1lFUof2n8

 

[Christian]

In Aix-en-provence you aren't too far from Bessèges. Did you go for a training ride today? How many km? How fast? What did you think of the weather conditions? Any black ice on the roads?

Lol no sorry it was way too cold and I am not at all equipped for that kind of weather. I was thinking about going to see the start in Nîmes but it would have involved taking 2 different trains and taken half a day. It didn't snow here but apparently it did in Nîmes

 

[El Pistolero]

Lol no sorry it was way too cold and I am not at all equipped for that kind of weather. I was thinking about going to see the start in Nîmes but it would have involved taking 2 different trains and taken half a day. It didn't snow here but apparently it did in Nîmes

It definitely is too cold to ride right now, wish I would have followed your advice!

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Sunny, no wind and -1 today.
Non-starters are Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM), Evaldas Siskevicius (La Pomme Marseille), Français Thibaut Pinot and Arthur Vichot (both FDJ-BigMat). AV is injured, has broken his shoulder or clavicle.
High speed to begin with and Kittel was dropped immediately, as the stage began with a small col. It's all together at km 8.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

These have 1.25

Alexandre Pichot et Davide Malacarne (Europcar
Benoît Vaugrenard et Cédric Pineau (FDJ-BigMat)
Jonathan Hivert et Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun)
Julien El Fares et Julien Antomarchi (Team Type 1-Sanofi)
Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Schuller)
Hubert Dupont (AG2R–La Mondiale)
Kurt Hovelynck (Landbouwkrediet)
Dimitri Le Bouch (Auber 93)
Pierre-Luc Périchon (La Pomme Marseille)

124 km to go

 

[TeoSheva]

13 riders in front
Alexandre Pichot et Davide Malacarne (Europcar
Benoît Vaugrenard et Cédric Pineau (FDJ-BigMat)
Jonathan Hivert et Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun)
Julien El Farès et Julien Antomarchi (Team Type 1-Sanofi)
Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Schuller)
Hubert Dupont (AG2R-La Mondiale)
Kurt Hovelynck (Landbouwkrediet)
Dimitri Le Bouch (Auber 93)
Pierre-Luc Périchon (La Pomme Marseille)

A 15''
Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun), Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) et Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ-BigMat).

A 25''
Le peloton

A ? (more than 2 minutes)
Le groupe Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i)

maybe it's already over for Kittel

 

[happytramp]

A ? (more than 2 minutes)
Le groupe Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i)

maybe it's already over for Kittel

Any indication as to the size of that chasing group?

 

[TeoSheva]

Any indication as to the size of that chasing group?

not yet... you can follow the race here:
http://direct.directvelo.com/live-course/1253/etoile-de-besseges-3e-etape-point-course.html

 

[happytramp]

not yet... you can follow the race here:
http://direct.directvelo.com/live-course/1253/etoile-de-besseges-3e-etape-point-course.html

Excellent, thanks!