Today the first stage of the Critérium International 2011 took place between Porto-Vecchio and the Col de l'Ospedale.

After almost 200 kilometers, Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) won this first stage by attacking in the last 2 kilometers and thus takes the first yellow jersey of this Critérium International.

The summary of the first stage of the Critérium International 2011

123 riders came to the start of the first stage of the Critérium International 2011 this morning, for 16 teams (of which 7 French).

Jens Voigt, who was probably thinking about the fact that at 40 years old he could become the first rider ever to win the Critérium International for the 6th time, decided to attack and ended up in front of the peloton with an almost 2 minute gap at 25 kilometer from the finish. While he was getting closer to the finish he probably realised that the parcours on Corsica is less adapted to his qualities than the one he found in the Ardennes when he won 5 editions of this race.

The Saur-Sojasun team was leading the peloton behind Voigt but when they were about to cacth him at 13 kilometers from the finish, it was Rémy di Grégorio (Astana)'s turn to attack, just like in the forelast stage of Paris-Nice 2011 which he won. Anthony Roux (FDJ) started the pursuit but finally the two French riders didn't really get a chance for victory.

The real battle for the victory only started when Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) and Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) were leading the race and got company from Vasil Kyryienka (Movistar Team). Behind them a group was formed by the Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) and David Lopez Garcia (Movistar Team). From this group Alexandre Geniez decided to attack to try to get back on the three leading riders, followed by David Lopez. During this attack it became clear that today's stage had been quite demanding for Samuel Sanchez who dropped back to the back of the first behind them.

The leading group first gets rid of Kyryienka after a decisive attack by Fränk Schleck at only 2 kilometers from the finish. Taaramae manages to follow at first, but the rider from Luxembourg clearly turns out to be a better climber than the Estonian rider and thus wins this first stage of the 80th edition of the Critérium International in a solo victory.

Fränk Scleck's comments after his victory

To France Télévisions, Fränk Schleck declared about his victory: I was not bad at Paris-Nice but I suffered from an inflammation there. I got some good rest since.
This is a nice victory in this Critérium, it's an important race so this feels good. We wanted to show something here today, we wanted a good result. Today, everyone had a difficult day. Andy attacked several times, same for me and when I attacked together with Taaramae it turned out to be the right one. I had an advantage on Taaramae since the slope was quite steep.
I'm happy for the team since we've been riding upfront the whole day with Jens and that's good for Team Leopard-Trek.

Concerning his chances for the overall victory in this three stages race over two days, the rider from Luxembourg added: I'm not a time trial specialist but now I'm here, I'll try to keep the yellow jersey. I'm now going to try to win this Critérium, if only it were for Jens who now has 6 and who thus actually deserved to win it.

The classifications after the first stage of the Critérium International 2011

After this first stage and the day before a short stage (75 km) and an individual time trial of 7 kilometers (see The Critérium International 2011 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth for more information), the general classification already shows such important gaps that the riders able to take the overall victory already seem to be in the top 5 of this 80th edition of the Critérium International.

The stage classification for the first stage of the Critérium International 2011

Here's the top 10 for this first stage:
1/ Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) - 5h21'02"
2/ Vasil Kyryienka (Astana) - +0'16"
3/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - +0'22"
4/ David Lopez Garcia (Movistar Team) - +0'58"
5/ Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) - +1'00"
6/ Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +1'09"
7/ Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky)
8/ Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar)
9/ Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ)
10/ Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek)

General classification

After this first stage, the top 5 of the general classification is of course the same but thanks to the bonifications the gaps are even a bit more important:
1/ Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) - 5h20'52"
2/ Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar Team) - +0'20"
3/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne) - +0'28"
4/ David Lopez Garcia (Movistar Team) - +1'08"
5/ Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) - +1'10"

Points classification

Because of the inequal distribution of points for the points classification between the intermediate sprints and those awarded at the finish, the same top 5 is leading the points classification while Jens Voigt is 6th with 6 points.

1/ Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) - 15 points
2/ Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar Team) - 12 points
3/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne) - 10 points
4/ David Lopez Garcia (Movistar Team) - 8 points
5/ Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) - 7 points

Vasil Kiryienka will thus wear the green jersey of this classification during the 2nd stage tomorrow morning.

King of the Mountains classification

Since Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) passed first on top of the Côte d'Orasi, of the Col de Saint-Eustache, of the Côte d'Aullène and third on top of the Col de Bacinu, the Dutch rider takes the jersey of the King of the Mountain classification and due to his gap on number 2 and since there's only one climb tomorrow, he already knows he will take home the polka dot jersey of this Critérium International!

1/ Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Procycling Team) - 24 points
2/ Renaud Dion (Bretagne-Schuller) - 16 points
3/ Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) - 6 points
4/ Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) - 6 points
5/ Jens Voigt (Team Leopard-Trek - 6 points

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium International

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