Sunday 18 March 2012 at 19h05
The 3rd race of the Coupe de France PMU 2012 took place today around the city of Cholet: Cholet-Pays de Loire. The result is completely as expected with a victory of Arnaud Démare FDJ BigMat, but the race didn't really end like we thought since ... there hasn't been a bunch sprint!
The summary of Cholet-Pays de Loire
After a presentation of the teams which was partly humid because of the rain which invited itself in the two main French races this weekend, the 3rd race of the Coupe de France PMU 2012 started in the city of Cholet at the end of this morning for a race of 170 kilometers before a first crossing of the finish line followed by a loop of 29 kilometers around the city which was elected most sportive city of France in 2007.123 riders came to the start of the race, Mickaël Buffaz (Cofidis) didn't take the start.
While the riders got some rain, it was thus not really surprising that the gap between the 4 leading riders and the peloton was still 1'55" at the first crossing of the finish line. They still have 29 kilometers to go there and in this final loop around Cholet we see a counter attack taking form with Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar), Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Julien Bérard (AG2R La Mondiale), Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun), Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Eric Berthou (Bretagne-Schuller). Even though this small group was quickly taken back, this did however give the peloton the indication to accellerate and to catch up with the 4 leading riders.
Yannick Talabardon tries to get away in a solo attack but he didn't succeed in that since he the rider of the Saur-Sojasun team was absorbed by the peloton which thus all came together again. In the 10 last kilometers, it was up to Cyril Gautier to give it a try in a solo attack but the rider of Team Europcar was also taken back.
In the last kilometers of the race, something quite incredible happened ... several favourite riders of the race get in a breakaway of 5 riders. Those riders were first of all the big favourite, Arnaud Démare (FDJ BigMat), together with his team mates Mickaël Delage and Pierrick Fédrigo, and Adrien Petit for the Cofidis team and Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun).
The young neo pro thus takes his 4th victory in 2012 after having participated in only 6 races. Indeed, since the start of the year, Démare already won the 6th stage of the Tour of Qatar, Le Samyn in Belgium and the 2nd stage of the Three Days of West-Flanders.
The photos of Cholet-Pays de Loire 2012
A selection of 80 photos of Cholet-Pays de Loire 2012 are now online. You can click on the following link to see them:>> The photos of Cholet-Pays de Loire 2012
The classifications of Cholet-Pays de Loire 2012
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The race classification
1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ BigMat) - 5h07'20"
2/ Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun)
3/ Mickaël Delage (FDJ BigMat)
4/ Adrien Petit (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - +0'02"
5/ Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ BigMat)
6/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
7/ Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun)
8/ Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural)
9/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ BigMat)
10/ Guillaume Blot (Bretagne-Schuller)
The Challenge des 10 Bosses
In Cholet-Pays de Loire, the riders climb several, mostly short, climbs. 10 of them are part of a classification which is called the Challenge des 10 Bosses.Here's the full result of that challenge:
2/ Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Schuller) - 26 points
3/ Anthony Charteau (Team Europcar) - 5 points
4/ Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) - 5 points
5/ Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun) - 4 points
6/ Alexandre Pichot (Team Europcar) - 4 points
7/ Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun) - 3 points
8/ Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ BigMat) - 3 points
9/ Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Schuller) - 1 point
10/ Mickaël Delage (FDJ BigMat) - 1 point
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The classification of the Coupe de France PMU
1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ BigMat) - 50 points
2/ Florian Vachon (Bretagne-Schuller) - 50 points
3/ Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 50 points
4/ Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun) - 35 points
5/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 34 points
6/ Mickaël Delage (FDJ BigMat) - 25 points
7/ Arthur Vichot (FDJ BigMat) - 25 points
8/ Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) - 22 points
9/ Adrien Petit (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 20 points
10/ Jérémie Galland (Saur-Sojasun) - 20 points
The next race on the calender of the Coupe de France PMU 2012 is the Route Adélie de Vitré on Friday 30 March. door Thomas Vergouwen
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