Paris-Bourges

Gien to Bourges, 190.9km/119mi

By Cathy Mehl

The day started badly and ended badly in the 61st Paris-Bourges one-day race in France on Thursday.  It rained all day and riders Ivan Rovny and stagiaire Evgeniy Shalunov were in the middle of a big early crash and had to be taken to the hospital.  Later, in the final kilometer, Ben Hermans, Manuel Cardoso and Geoffroy Lequatre also went down.

Ivan Rovny suffered an ankle fracture after he was involved in a crash early in today’s race.  The fracture is situated at the lower extremity of the right tibula. The season of the Russian rider, one of the revelations of this year’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge, is over. Also Team RadioShack’s stagiaire Evgeniy Shalunov was involved in the same crash. He suffers from contusions but is expected to be able to start in Paris-Tours on Sunday.

It was Lequatre’s goal to have similar results to last year’s Paris-Tours.  He went in an early attack with 13 other riders.  With 12 of the twenty-two team represented in the break, the group worked hard for almost 50k before they established their one-minute advantage.  But then it became two minutes and then three. With Saxo Bank-Sungard and FDJ chasing, six of the escapees attacked their group and left the others to be caught by the peloton.  Included in the six were Lequatre with John Degenkolb (HTC), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil), Matthew Hayman (Sky), Laszlo Bodrogi (Crédit) and Paul Voss (Endura Cycling).   The rain continued to fall and the six were caught in the final kilometers.

“We started to bring Manuel Cardoso up for the sprint,” explained Team Director Alain Gallopin.  “But at a corner we all went down on the slippery roads.  It was over and out for Hermans, Lequatre and Cardoso.”   

For Cardoso it initially only looked to be general pain to his right shoulder and hip.  A trip to the hospital in Bourges showed no fracture to the area, but his shoulder needs to be immobilized for eight days.  The Portuguese rider, winner of a stage in Tour of Catalunya this year, will not be able to participate in Paris-Tours on Sunday.

Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) could resist the sprinting group and won ahead of Baden Cooke (Saxo), Greg Henderson (Sky) and John Degenkolb (HTC).

Racing continues on Sunday for Team RadioShack.

The team line-up for Paris-Tours (France), 09/10/11

Riders: Matthew Busche, Michal Kwiatkowski, Geoffroy Lequatre, Robbie McEwen, Gregory Rast, Jesse Sergent & Evgeniy Shalunov

Director: Alain Gallopin

Top Ten Results

1              Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Procycling                     

2              Baden Cooke (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard                  

3              Greg Henderson (NZl) Sky Procycling                       

4              John Degenkolb (Ger) HTC-Highroad                       

5              Julien Simon (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                               

6              Alexandre Blain (Fra) Endura Racing                         

7              Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                                

8              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team                     

9              Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne                              

10            Christopher Sutton (Aus) Sky Procycling