Tour de l’Ain

Stage 2:  Le Parc Des Oiseaux to Trevoux, 138.8km/86mi

By Cathy Mehl

Yesterday’s second place winner moved up a slot today to take the sprint victory in stage 2 of the Tour de l’Ain.  Wearing the leader’s jersey, Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) took the win just ahead of Steve Chainel  (BBox Bouygues Telecom) and  Tony Gallopin of Cofidis.  Gallopin is the nephew of The Shack’s Team Director Alain Gallopin and continues to have a strong year in his young career.   Feillu took the race lead yesterday on time bonuses and widened the gap today with the bonus awarded to his first place finish.

Tomas Voeckler (BBox) was part of the breakaway and at only 12-seconds down, the French rider posed a threat for the overall classification.  Vacansoleil worked to protect the race lead for Feillu and in the final 20km The Shack riders helped along with Cofidis to bring it all back together.  Team RadioShack’s Fumy Beppu was part of the action at the end, attacking with 4km to go and only being caught with 300m to go.  Beppu’s good form earned him eighth on the stage.  Team rider Haimar Zubeldia maintained his high placing on the classification, keeping third place at fifteen seconds off the leading time. 

Real action heats up on Friday’s stage as the peloton heads from Montmerle-Sur-Saone to Arbent on a climbing stage.   It’s the penultimate stage of racing and the day Team RadioShack will work the hardest to move Haimar back into the race lead.  He might not win often, but it sure would be sweet to see him win again this week.

Markel and Ivan put in time at the front

Top Ten Results

1              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team               3:02:10                   

2              Steve Chainel (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom       0:00:01  

3              Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne                      

4              Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Française Des Jeux                               

5              John Murphy (USA) BMC Racing Team                    

6              Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Big Mat - Auber 93                                 

7              Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                  

8              Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Team Radioshack                                 

9              Kalle Kriit (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne                               

10            Romain Hardy (Fra) Bretagne – Schuller

Team RadioShack Results

26           Haimar Zubeldia (Spa)

57           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

60           José-Luis Rubiera (Spa)

67           Ivan Rovny (Rus)

70           Markel Irizar (Spa)

General Classification after Stage 2

1              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team               6:27:43                   

2              Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne     0:00:12  

3              Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Team Radioshack                0:00:15  

4              Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Rabobank Continental                    

5              Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                0:00:16  

6              Matthieu Boulo (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                      

7              Moreno Hofland (Ned) Rabobank Continental   0:00:17  

8              Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                  

9              Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC - Columbia                               

10            Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team

Team RadioShack on General Classification

20           Markel Irizar (Spa)   0:00:22         

26           José-Luis Rubiera (Spa)  0:00:25                

54           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)  0:00:33               

96           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:07:21

97           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:07:23 

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson