Tour de l’Ain

Stage 1: Lagnieu to Saint Vulbus, 144.4km/90mi

By Cathy Mehl

A sprint finish brought more than 60 riders to the line with Stéphane Poulhies (Saur-Sojasun) taking the field sprint in the opening road stage of the Tour de l’Ain.  The 25-year old French rider finished just ahead of Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) and Jean-Lou Païani of the French National Espoirs Team.  A six-second time bonus moved Feillu into the leader’s jersey just ahead of The Shack’s Haimar Zubeldia by four seconds.

It was a basically flat stage until a climb at 20km to go. A breakaway with French riders made up the escape of the day. Team RadioShack held court at the front of the main field to protect Haimar’s lead. 

“The Team was really good today,” said Team Director Alain Gallopin.  “It was a typical French race where we pulled all day.   There was a category 2 climb at 20k from the finish and there was some doubt whether the sprinters would survive the climb, so Omega Pharma-Lotto put some men on the front at that point.  The French teams didn’t work until the last 2k.  Losing the jersey due to bonifications is very good.  Now another team will have to pull.  Today it was us all day long with no help from others.  Tomorrow we are in a more comfortable position.”

Thursday’s stage 4 is 138.8km from Le Parc Des Oiseaux to Trevoux in a super flat stage.  The race will head to the mountains on Friday.  Zubeldia will sit tight until time to fly in the mountains and hopefully regain the race lead before the conclusion on Saturday. 

Top Ten Results

1              Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                  3:22:09                   

2              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                                

3              Jean-Lou Païani (Fra) French National Espoirs Team                          

4              Romain Hardy (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller                  

5              Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                                 

6              Laurent Mangel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                         

7              Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                                  

8              Gaël Malacarne (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller                               

9              Karsten Kroon (Ned) BMC Racing Team                                  

10            Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne

Team RadioShack Results

34           Haimar Zubeldia (Spa)

44           Markel Irizar (Spa)

53           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

63           José-Luis Rubiera (Spa)

95           Ivan Rovny (Rus) 0:06:57

97           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)

General Classification after Stage 1

1              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team               3:25:43                   

2              Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Team Radioshack                0:00:04  

3              Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Rabobank Continental                    

4              Laurent Mangel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                         

5              Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                0:00:05  

6              Matthieu Boulo (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                      

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

8              Moreno Hofland (Ned) Rabobank Continental   0:00:06  

9              Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                  

10            Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC - Columbia

Team RadioShack on General Classification

21           Markel Irizar (Spa)   0:00:11

29           José-Luis Rubiera (Spa)   0:00:14

57           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)   0:00:22

97           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:07:10

99           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:07:12                             

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson