Tour du Poitou-Charentes

Stage 2: Saint Georges De Didonne to Niort, 178.5km/110mi

By Cathy Mehl

Another sprint finish took place in stage 2 of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes on Wednesday in Niort.  Frenchman Anthony Ravard (Ag2r) took the win ahead of Dominique Rollin (Cervelo) and Enrico Rossi (Ceramica Flaminia).  Anthony Roux (FdJ) retained the leader’s jersey after yesterday’s stage win and holds five seconds over Ravard.  Third on the classification belongs to Brice Feillu of Vacansoleil.

Team RadioShack’s Fumy Beppu and Geoffroy Lequatre suffered a crash on the stage but had no problems continuing the stage.  Haimar Zubeldia, Jesse Sergent and Markel Irizar are all still well-placed on the overall at just 13-seconds off the leader’s time.

A break of two riders established a gap of more than six minutes but the time advantage was well-managed by Roux’s team, bringing them back in time to set up the final group spring

Stage 3 on Thursday is a double-stage day with a short 96km road stage in the morning followed by a 22.1km time trial later in the day.

Top Ten Results

1              Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale               4:17:01                   

2              Dominique Rollin (Can) Cervelo Test Team                            

3              Enrico Rossi (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                          

4              Jimmy Casper (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                             

5              Yoan Gene (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom                             

6              Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team                           

7              Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Rabobank Continental                      

8              Fabien Bacquet (Fra) Big Mat - Auber 93                                 

9              Daniele Colli (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                         

10           Rafai Chtioui (Tun) Acqua & Sapone

Team RadioShack Results

40           Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa)

47           Jesse Sergent (NZl)

69           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)

81           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

105         José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) 0:01:28

120         Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) 0:04:15

123         Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)

131         Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)  0:07:23

General Classification after Stage 2

1              Anthony Roux (Fra) Francaise des Jeux                  8:41:43                   

2              Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale               0:00:05  

3              Brice Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team     0:00:06  

4              Daniele Colli (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia        0:00:09  

5              Dominique Rollin (Can) Cervelo Test Team                            

6              Enrico Rossi (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia         0:00:11  

7              Romain Lemarchand (Fra) Big Mat - Auber 93                       

8              Alessandro Donati (Ita) Acqua & Sapone                                

9              Jost Van Leijen (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team          0:00:12  

10           Florian Vachon (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller                0:00:13

Team RadioShack on General Classification

46           Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa)

59           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)

63           Jesse Sergent (NZl)

93           José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa)  0:01:43

105         Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)  0:04:30 

107         Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)