This morning in the harbour of Porto-Vecchio, the 17 teams who participate in the Critérium International 2010 have been presented to the Corsican public. Many people came to the start to show their interest in this new start for the famous cycling race in 3 stages.

128 riders came to the start of this 175.5 km long stage which was won on top of the Col de l'Ospedale by Pierrick Fédrigo of the Bbox Bouygues Telecom team.

The summary of the stage

The riders left under a bleu sky to discover the South of Corsica. The Dutch rider Ricardo van der Velde didn't come to the start.

Right from kilometer 9, Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Cédric Pineau (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) formed a leading duo and quickly created a gap of up to 9'40" with the peloton. At kilometer 40 the BMC and Astana teams decide to reduce the gap and at the first sprint it was down to 7'20".

Albert Timmer takes the first place at the sprint and the Spanish rider Alberto Contador (Astana), recently winner of Paris-Nice 2010, took the third place.
At the top of the first climb, the Côte de Roccapina, the order in which the two leading riders crossed the line was inversed and the Japonese rider Yukihiro Doy (Skil-Shimano) arrived third on the top.

At the second intermediate sprint in Sartène the gap was still 4 minutes for Pineau who crossed the line first with Timmer second, while the third place was for Michael Albasini (HTC-Columbia).

When the leading duo started the climb of the Côte de Viggianello their gap was down to 3'20" and in this climb, where Timmer arrived first on top, it was reduced even more. Amets Txurruka arrived third on top at 1'40".

After over 100 kilometers at the head of the race, Albert Timmer and Cédric Pineau were taken back at kilometer 110.

While approaching the Col de Mela, Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Dimitri Champion (AG2R La Mondiale) and Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) form a new leading group and the last mentioned rider crossed the top of this climb first, ahead of the French champion de France and the winner of the Andorre Arcalis stage in the Tour de France 2009. The German rider of the Skil-Shimano team, Simon Geschke tries to bridge the gap with these riders but he's finally taken back by the peloton in the climb of the Col de Bacinu.

The order in which the riders arrived on top of this climb is the same as in the previous climb and their gap with the peloton is 50 seconds.
In the descent Pierre Rolland can not follow the two other riders and he's finally taken back by the the peloton which was lead at that time by the Euskaltel-Euskadi team.

At the last intermediate sprint, in Porto-Vecchio, at 17 kilometers from the finish, Dimitri Champion takes the 3 points, ahead of Feillu and Alberto Contador who follows at 20 seconds. However, 2 kilometers further, this second leading group is also taken back and in the final climb of the Col de l'Ospedale another rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team attacks. Blel Kadri stays ahead for a few kilometers but he can't resist the attack of Sergey Lagutin of the Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team.

In the peloton behind them, only a few riders can keep up the pace in the climb and for example Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) loses contact with this group.
At a bit less than 3 kilometers from the finish, Lagutin is taken back and several riders try to escape with first David Moncoutié (Cofidis) followed by Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack). Finally, the French rider Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) gets on with this last attack and manages to get away from the Portuguese rider in the last kilometer.

He wins this first stage of the Critérium International 2010, at 10 seconds from Tiago Machado and 12 seconds from the Olympic Champion, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

The classifications after the first stage

The general classification

Quite obviously Pierrick Fedrigo takes the lead in the general classification with his stage win:
1/ Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 5h19'35"
2/ Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack) - +00'15"
3/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +00'21"
4/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +00'25"
5/ David Moncoutié (Cofidis) - +00'25"
6/ Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - +00'25"
7/ Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) - +00'25"
8/ Christopher Horner (Team Radioshack) - +00'25"
9/ Ben Hermans (Team Radioshack) - +00'25"
10/ David Lopez Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne) - +00'25"

Classification by points

The rider of the Bbox Bouygues Telecom team not only takes the stage win and the yellow jersey, but also the green jersey of the classification by points.
1/ Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 15 points
2/ Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack) - 12 points
3/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 10 points
4/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 8 points
5/ David Moncoutié (Cofidis) - 7 points

King of the Mountain classification

Fédrigo's team mate Pierre Rolland, who was in the second leading group took enough points to take the lead in the King of the Mountain classification and get the polka dot jersey on his shoulders.
1/ Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 12 points
2/ Cedric Pineau (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) - 10 points
3/ Dimitri Champion (AG2R La Mondiale) - 8 points
4/ Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 6 points
5/ Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack) - 4 points

Best young rider classification

Finishing second in this stage, Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack) takes the lead in the best young rider classification ahead of his Belgian team mate Ben Hermans.
1/ Tiago Machado (Team Radioshack) - 5h19'50"
2/ Ben Hermans (Team Radioshack) - +00'10"
3/ Beñat Intxausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +00'14"
4/ Dan Martin (Garmin-Transitions) - +00'19"
5/ Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - +00'40"

One rider gave up

During this stage, Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne) decided to leave the Corsican roads.

The photos of the first stage of the Critérium International 2010

A first selection of pictures of this stage of the Critérium International 2010 is now available in the category Critérium International 2010: first stage.

Later (probably on Monday), other photos of this stage will be published in this category.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium International

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