Sunday 15 May 2011 at 18h51
The 4th and last stage of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour 2011 took place this afternoon between Saint-Maurice l'Exil and Charvieu-Chavagneux.
When a leading group of 8 riders was taken back, Thomas Vedel Kvist and Jérémy Roy ended the stage together in the lead. Vedel Kvist intelligently uses (or abuses of) the combativity of Roy to be brought to the stage finish where he sprints from his wheel and wins the stage. Sylvain Georges, who took back the yellow jersey yesterday, ended as the overall winner of this 21st edition of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour.
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The summary of the 4th stage: Saint-Maurice l'Exil > Charvieu-Chavagneux
Several groups were formed at the head of the race right from the start, but after 30 kilometers the whole bunch got back together and the race could just start all over again.A bit later, an attack by Nicolas Baldo (Atlas Personal), Thomas Vedel Kvist (Glud & Marstrand), Arnaud Gérard (FDJ) and Christophe Laborie (Saur-Sojasun) was the base for the creation of an 8 men strong leading group. Indeed, these 4 riders got company from Aurélien Ribet (AVC Aix-en-Provence), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Wilko Kelderman (Rabobank Continental Team) and a bit later also from Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Schuller). Their gap went up to 1'40" at about one hundred kilometers from the finish while the BigMat-Auber 93 team tried to control the gap at the front of the peloton and thus defend Sylvain Georges's yellow jersey. Christophe Laborie tries to escape alone but he soon gets caught back by the 7 other riders from the leading group.
Not happy with their lead on the peloton, the breakaway pushes a bit more on the pedals in order to extend the gap up to 2'10" at 80 kilometers from the finish. Led by FDJ, the peloton however quickly comes back on them while we also see FDJ leading at the head of the race with Arnaud Courteille attacking together with Sébastien Duret vandoor gaat. Joined by Thomas Vedel Kvist the 3 riders start with the forelast climb of the day, the Col du Mont Verdun, but they quickly lose Sébastien Duret. In the descent the rider of Bretagne-Schuller however gets back in the leading group, just like Jérémy Roy (FDJ), who made the gap from the peloton.
The peloton with the yellow jersey than decides to calm down a bit and lets the 4 new leaders extend their gap up to 1'40".
When BigMat-Auber 93 gets some help from Team Europcar, Team Differdange and Plussbank-Cervélo at the head of the peloton, the gap disappears as snow for the sun and for Jérémy Roy, who of course deserved his title of most combative rider of this Rhône Alpes Isère Tour 2011, and Thomas Vedel Kvist this was the sign to attack once more and thus get on the local circuit (which they had to do 3 times) as a leading duo. With a gap slowly going down from 45 to 10 seconds in the last kilometer, the peloton seems to be getting back on the leading duo but when the finish shows up, they realise that the stage win will be for one of them. From Jérémy Roy's wheel, Thomas Vedel Kvist starts the sprint at a bit over 50 meters from the finish and thus wins the stage. Jérémy Roy said after the finish that the Danish rider never really took over when it was his turn and thus said that this stage win was not really fair play.
Jérémy Roy ended second at 2 seconds while Tony Hurel (Team Europcar) wins the sprint in the peloton for the 3rd place at 3 seconds. The yellow jersey, Sylvain Georges ended the stage in 47th position at 11 seconds behind the winner in the same group as his first runner up, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) who ended 38th.
This well deserved victory of Sylvain Georges in the general classification thus finishes up this 21st edition of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour! door Thomas Vergouwen
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