Today the 39th edition of the Tour de Vendée took place between Montaigu and La Roche-sur-Yon. Since this was the last race of the Coupe de France the race was not only important for today's win but also for the victory in this Coupe which comprises 12 French races. And of course also for the Bbox Bouygues Telecom team which wanted to shine in this race at only a few days of the final decision about the future of the team with a new sponsor or the definitive end.

Before the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2011 in July, the roads of the Vendée were thus the scenery for a race with 3 faces!

The summary of the Tour de Vendée 2010

With 123 riders of 16 teams at the start, the Vendée this afternoon saw another edition of this yearly race of the UCI Europe Tour (1.1) which was won by Pavel Brutt last year.

Rather quickly a leading group of 11 riders was formed including Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) who recently won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in a brilliant way, but also Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Markel Irizar and Ivan Rovny (Team Radioshack), Nicolas Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jérémie Galland (Saur-Sojasun, the winner of the first stage of the Tour du Limousin 2010), Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne-Schuller), Gorik Gardeyn, Stéphane Rossetto and Arnoud van Groen for Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team and the stagiair Alexander Wetterhall of Cervélo TestTeam.

These 11 riders managed to create a gap of more than 3 minutes and to stay ahead until about 60 kilometers from the finish. In the climb of the Côte de la Pouzaire the peloton explodes, especially because of an attack by Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) and the leading group is reduced to 5 riders: only Thomas Voeckler, Markel Irizar, Ivan Rovny, Jérémie Galland and Jean-Luc Delpech stay ahead. A few kilometers further, at 51 kilometers from the finish the adventure ends for them as well and the peloton gets completely back together.

A bit later 4 riders manage to get away again. This time the leading group is formed by the Estonian Rein Taaramae of the Cofidis team, the Spaniard Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Rony Martias for Saur-Sojasun and Bert Scheirlinckx for the Belgian Landbouwkrediet team. While these riders get a lead of about 50 seconds, Team Radioshack gets in front of the peloton to control this gap to prepare a possible bunch sprint for their sprinter, Gert Steegmans.

At 20 kilometers from the finish, Thomas Voeckler again showed up in front, this time chasing behind the 4 leading riders. Thanks to his efforts the gap literally melts away and under the menace of the peloton coming back, only Pablo Urtasun and Bert Scheirlinckx manage to stay ahead when they enter the final circuit.

At the first crossing of the finish line (at 3 rounds of the finish), their gap was down to only 8 seconds and a bit later Mikaël Cherel (FDJ) decide to attack. Even though he easily gets back on and over the two leading riders, his attack finally turns out not to be successful and at a bit less than 12 kilometers from the finish the peloton is back together.

Romain Lemarchand (BigMat-Auber 93), future rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team, gets away from the front of the peloton and crosses the finish line first at the second crossing. He's joined by 5 other riders at 7 kilometers from the finish: Alexandre Botcharov (Katusha Team), Rob Ruijgh and Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Geert Verheyen (Landbouwkrediet) and Juan José Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), but at 2.5 kilometers from the finish this final leading group is also taken back by the peloton.

Jérémie Galland is the last rider who tries to prevent the race to finish in a bunch sprint because at 1.5 kilometers from the finish the French rider gets away from the peloton, but at less than one kilometer from the finish this solo attack also turns out to be unsuccessful, just like the sprint which was launched too early by Heinrich Haussler and Davide Appolonio who tried to reproduce the finish of the last stage of the Tour du Limousin 2010.

Finally this Tour de Vendée thus finished in a bunch sprint, won by Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

The reactions after the race

After the finish Thomas Voeckler commented his race and the search for a new sponsor: I gave a lot during the race today and I probably paid for that at the end, but it was worth giving it a try! Now we'll just have to wait for news in the upcoming hours, hoping the news to be positive for the team. From a sports point of view we did everything we could and I hope that next year there will still be a team from Vendée in races like the Tour de Vendée!

Koldo Fernandez at his turn said he was Very happy with the result and added: These roads are similar to what we have in Basque country. Haussler and Appolonio launched their sprint at 250 meters and I thus thought it would be very difficult but I gave everything I had and the result is great!

The victory in the Coupe de France for Leonardo Duque

Before this last race of the Coupe de France Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) was leading this classification with 137 points but his lead on Florian Vachon (Bretagne-Schuller) was only 7 points while Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun) was 3rd with 105 points.

The Colombian rider stayed in the wheel of Florian Vachon until the finish and thus wins the Coupe de France 2010 with a 1 point difference.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France)

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