Tour de Picardie

Stage 1: Boué to  Doullens, 181 km/112mi

By Cathy Mehl

While Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer line up with teammates in the Amgen Tour of California, another part of Team RadioShack is racing in France and putting on a good show to boot.  Team rider Fumy Beppu put himself in the day-long break with two other riders, managing to work well together all day to build an advantage of ten minutes.  The trio almost managed to hold off the peloton but the ambitions of the teams of the sprinters were strong andonce they organized themselves, the catch was made with only 2km to go.  The group sprint win went to Dutchman  Kenny van Hummel (Skil), followed by Ben Swift of Sky and Danilo Napilitano (Katusha).

Van Hummel wears the first leader’s jersey with two stages to go.  Beppu collected time bonuses along the way and sits a solid third on general classification.  Fumy's Team RadioShack teammates all safely arrived with him in the peloton.

Saturday’s stage two travels travels 186km from Friville-Escarbotin-Belloy to  Cires-lès-Mello.

Top Ten Results

1              Kenny Robert van Hummel  SKS   04u16'05''        

2              Ben Swift   SKY                

3              Danilo Napolitano   KAT                                

4              Yohann Gene    BTL                        

5              Robert Wagner   SKS                      

6              Yauheni Hutarovich         FDJ                        

7              Giovanni Bernaudeau    BTL                        

8              Grégory Joseph                  TSV                     

9              Michael Van Staeyen     TSV                       

10           Jimmy Casper   SAU

Partial General Classification

1              Kenny Robert van Hummel         SKS         04u15'55''           

2              Ben Swift   SKY  0'04''    

3              Fumiyuki Beppu   RSH