After a stage which saw a long lead by Daniel Diaz, Cédric Pineau and Aurélien Ribet and a solo lead by Jérémy Roy, the first stage of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour 2011 was finally won by Sylvain Georges.

The summary of the stage Vaulx-Milieu > Saint-Savin

This afternoon, the 21st edition of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour started in front of the TIME fabrication plant in Vaulx-Milieu.

Before the start, the riders and the organisation observed one minute of silence to honour Wouter Weylandt, young Belgian rider of Team Leopard-Trek, who lost his life in a fatal fall during the 3rd stage of the Tour of Italy.

123 riders came to the start of the first stage, going towards Saint-Savin. Several of them directly tried to escape, without too much success until the attack by Daniel Diaz (VC La Pomme Marseille) and Cédric Pineau (FDJ) after twelve kilometers in the race. That turned out to be the right one because the two riders stayed ahead during almost the whole race.
After an unsuccessful attempt by Jérôme Mainard (CR4C Roanne) and Sylvain Georges (BigMat-Auber 93), it was up to Aurelien Ribet (AVC Aix-en-Provence) to start the pursuit of the two leading riders and his try turned out to be more sucessful than the others.

While the gap of the three leading riders progressively increases, a new pursuit group is formed when Fabien Alazard (VC Caladois) gets back on Nicolas Galvez (Team Vulco), who started the pursuit of the leading trio a bit earlier.

At the first sprint in Le Rapoux (Biol), Pineau, Diaz and Ribet's gap was at its highest and the peloton is 3'20" behind Cédric Pineau who took the first place and thus the 3 bonus seconds.
The chasing group was at 1'40" at that time and seemed to have some trouble in getting back on the leading group. At around 100 kilometers from the finish, their adventure ended when they were taken back by the peloton which is than about 2 minutes behind the leading trio.

The gap continues to decrease while Cédric Pineau shows that he wants to take the intermediate sprints in this stage. Indeed, at the second intermediate sprint in Saint Geoire en Valdaine, he crosses the line first again.

In the climb of the Côte de Rochefort, this same rider can no longer follow the rhythm imposed by Daniel Diaz, Argentinian rider of VC La Pomme Marseille who takes the points for the King of the Mountains jersey. When the rider of FDJ is taken back by the peloton, they are still 1'30" behind the leading duo and in the intermediate sprint at the Leisure park Walibi, it's up to Aurélien Ribet to take the first place.

It's than up to Jérémy Roy (FDJ) to get in a solo attack, just the way he likes them best, when Daniel Diaz continues alone as well and leaves Aurélien Ribet behind him.
Accompanied by Pierre-Luc Périchon (SCO Dijon), Jérémy Roy is taken back by the peloton but when the rider which initiated the first leading group is taken back as well, Roy decides to give it yet another try in the final circuit. With a gap going up to about one minute, Roy seems to be going for victory.

He didn't however count on Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Schuller), Gaëtan Bille (Wallonie-Bruxelles-Crédit Agricole) and Herberts Pudans (SCO Dijon) who get back on the rider who's back racing after a short stop due to a toxoplasmose. They are joined by several other riders as well, including Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Sylvain Georges (BigMat-Auber 93) who get to the finish with this leading group.

In the last meters towards the finish and after the downhill turn which preceded the final straight line, Sylvain Georges and Gaëtan Bille battle for victory and, after having analysed the finish photo, it turns out to be the French rider who won without being able to get his hands up in the air. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) finished third behind them.

The top 10 of the stage

Here's the top 10 at the finish of this stage in Saint-Savin:

1/ Sylvain Georges (BigMat-Auber93) - 3h50'57"
2/ Gaëtan Bille (Wallonie-Bruxelles-Crédit Agricole)
3/ Thibaut Pinot(FDJ) - +0'02"
4/ Frederik Wilmann (Joker-Merida)
5/ Marc Goos (Rabobank Continental Team) - +0'05"
6/ Justin Jules (VC La Pomme Marseille)
7/ Daniel Holm Foder (Glud & Marstrand-Lro Radgivning)
8/ Clément Bourgoin (Charvieu-Chavagneux IC)
9/ Jonathan Fumeaux (Team Atlas Personal)
10/ Lasse Bochmann (Glud & Marstrand-Lro Radgivning)

The photos of the first stage of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour 2011

>> Check out the photos of the 1st stage of the Rhône Alpes Isère Tour 2011: Vaulx-Milieu > Saint-Savin.

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

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