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

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

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

As (nearly) every year, the European road season starts in lovely southern France.

24th Grand Prix cycliste d'Ouverture "La Marseillaise"

29 January
UCI 1.1
148 km

2011:

1 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ 3:30:55
2 Sylvain Georges (Fra) Big Mat - Auber 93 0:02:38
3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil - DCM Procycling Team 0:02:43
4 Jure Kocjan (Slo) Team Type 1
5 Artur Vichot (Fra) FDJ
6 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar
7 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Vacansoleil - DCM Procycling Team
8 Cédric Pineau (Fra) FDJ
9 Julien Antomarchi (Fra) Velo Club La Pomme-Marseille
10 Julien El Fares (Fra) Cofidis le Crédit en Ligne

42th Étoile de Bessèges

1 - 5 February
UCI 2.1


stage 1: Beaucaire - Bellegarde, 148 km
stage 2: Nîmes - Saint Ambroix, 149 km
stage 3: Grand Prix de Besseges, 152 km
stage 4: Grand Prix C.C. Rhône Ceze Landguedoc, 150 km
stage 5a: Grand Prix d'Ales en Cevennes, 82 km
stage 5b: Alés Quai Boissier de Sauvages - Site de l’Ermitage (ITT), 9,7 km

Find a detailed list of the stages here.

2011:

1 Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 17:46:10
2 Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:07
3 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
4 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) FDJ 0:00:15
5 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:00:19
6 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:20
7 Steven Tronet (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
8 Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ
10 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:23

There's already a first start list for Bessèges. GP d'Ouverture will most likely be quite the same with some minor changes.

What to expect?

- three to four sprint wins by Kittel
- two to three second places for Marcato
- Nico Eeckhout winning a stage, like every year

Can't wait for the action to start.

 

[will10]

Nice work.

 

[roundabout]

Still 10 days away

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

FDJ-Big Mat for GP d'Ouverture:

Arnaud Gérard
Anthony Geslin
Arnold Jeannesson
Rémi Pauriol
Cédric Pineau
Thibaut Pinot
Arthur Vichot
Kenny Ellisonde

This is Kenny Ellisonde's pro debut. I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Christian]

Thanks for the maps! I will try to go watch the GP de la Marseillaise and maybe the first or second stage of Etoile de Bessèges.

I have never followed these races much so I don't know what to expect but it should be fun. I see the arrivée is at the Stade Vélodrome, that's pretty accessible and easy to find so I'll probably go there

 

[dlwssonic]

I have Hubert dupont riding for my cq team.

 

[skidmark]

Very nice... I enjoy how this forum has evolved to get more people more interested in the 'minor' races. Even if the pros kind of use these races for warmup (check out the hotly contested sprint from last year at the end of this clip), it's exciting as a cycling fan to see others interested in the start of the season. Thanks!

 

[LaFlorecita]

All I saw was "Col" and "Galibier" and I went but then I noticed the "petit".

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Quintana on the start list for Marseille

Also looking forward to Ponzi and Pinot

 

[El Pistolero]

Marseille always reminds me of when they send Gilbert the wrong way in the final making him lose. Can't remember what year it was though.
Anyway, I like these small French races. Probably some French dude that will win. Is Offredo free to ride or have they banned him already?

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

FDJ teams for both races are already mentioned in this thread.

 

[El Pistolero]

FDJ teams for both races are already mentioned in this thread.

I'm not talking about these races, I'm talking in general.

 

[Nicosix]

If you're looking for the startlists :

GP la Marseillaise

Etoile de Bessèges

Tour Mediterraneen

 

[Christian]

I found a nice brochure online that has pretty much everything in it, including cell phone numbers for the race director and the third ambulance driver in reserve.

Some interesting details for the prize money:

1: 5,785€
2: 2,895€
3: 1,445€
4: 715€
5: 580€
6: 433€
7: 433€
8: 287€
9: 287€
10 - 20: 147€

King of the Mountains:

1: 600€
2: 400€
3: 200€

Young riders:

1: 300€
2: 200€
3: 100€

Total prize money: 16,227€

It also says the race will be live on http://www.lamarseillaise.fr

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

I found a nice brochure online that has pretty much everything in it, including cell phone numbers for the race director and the third ambulance driver in reserve.

All to find here, thank you for the hint.

Nice story about the curse of the GP d'Ouverture. Quite often the winner of this race had a bad rest of the season, e.g. Duclos-Lassalle in 2008 or Pauriol in 2009.

This race will also be start of the Coupe de France 2012:

29 janvier GP La Marseillaise
17 mars Classic Loire Atlantique
18 mars GP de Cholet-Pays-de-Loire
30 mars Route Adélie
1 avril Flèche d'Emeraude
10 avril Paris-Camembert
12 avril GP de Denain
14 avril Tour du Finistère
15 avril Tro Bro Leon
26 mai GP de Plumelec-Morbihan
27 mai Boucles de l'Aulne
29 juillet Polynormande
19 août Classic de l'Indre
2 septembre Tour du Doubs
16 septembre GP d'Isbergues
14 octobre Tour de Vendée

 

[Hugo Koblet]

So it's today - the European season starts! Hope I'll be able to watch it, but I guess I have to watch Denmark beating Serbia in the final of the European Championship in handball

 

[jens_attacks]

looks like we got the first breakaway of 2012 on european soil:

118 km to go



Rémi Pauriol (FDJ)
Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil)
Rein Taaramae (Cofidis)
Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R)
Rémi Cusin (Type 1)
Cyril Lemoine (Saur Sojasun)




@0:45
Franck Vermeulen (Vérandas Rideau)



@2:10
peloton


http://direct.directvelo.com/live-c...arseillaise-coupe-de-france-point-course.html

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Lol Taaramae

 

[will10]

Lol Taaramae

what?

 

[Geordiedave]

anywhere to watch this?

 

[Christian]

OK I'm off to the finish line now. I'll take some pictures and try to post them later

 

[canyonball]

anywhere to watch this?

According to a fellow user from another site, there is no live coverage. Only a 10 min summary tomorrow at French Eurosport.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

L'Estonien Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) a attaqué dans la descente du Col du Petit Galibier.

Lol Taaramae

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Keizer crashed and broke his collarbone

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Keizer crashed and broke his collarbone

Typically dutch season has started then