Today Paris-Bourges took place, now better known as Paris-Gien-Bourges since this race in the 1.1 category of UCI's Europe Tour starts since 12 years already in Gien at about 150 kilometers south of Paris.
The entitled sprinter of the American Columbia-HTC team in absence of Mark Cavendish, the German rider André Greipel, won this race in the sprint.
Paris-Bourges was first organised in 1913, but today it was "only" the 59th edition**. At the start of this race, organised by the Union Bourges Cher Cyclisme (UBCC), early this afternoon, 20 teams gathered about 150 riders.
After two attempts without success a leading group of 19 rides was formed about 35 kilometers after the start. The gap with the peloton went up to 2'30" in 40 kilometers, before the peloton took back some time on the escaped riders.
The leading group's organisation got completely lost when Cédric Pineau (photo, AG2R La Mondiale) attacked to continue alone at 77 kilometers from the finish. In several bits the riders from the leading group are all taken back: at 51 kilometers from the finish their adventure is over.
4 of them however do not want to give up and leave the peloton again, getting company of two other riders. Finally Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Cédric Pineau (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jean-Marc Marino (Besson-Sojasun), Anthony Geslin (Française des Jeux), Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) and Nadir Haddou (Auber 93) are about 30 seconds ahead of the peloton. Rather quickly Johnny Hoogerland and Cédric Pineau can no longer follow and are taken back by the peloton while the Bbox Bouygues Telecom team is leading the peloton.
About 10 kilometers further, Jean-Marc Marino is taken back by the peloton while Alexandre Usov (photo, Cofidis) bridges the gap with the 3 other riders of the leading group, followed by about 15 other riders.
At 11 kilometers from the finish, just before the riders enter the final circuit around Bourges this new leading group is taken back as well and the peloton is complete again. Several riders still try to get away, but especially the Columbia-HTC team doesn't allow them to go very far.
Not quite surprisingly this race thus ends in a sprint and in that game the German rider André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) is the quickest for the 20th time this season. He finishes ahead of Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Alexandre Usov (Cofidis).
They rode the 193,3 kilometers in 4h11m55s, thus reaching an average speed of 46 km/h!
Below is the top 10 of today's classification:
1/ André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) - 4h11m55s
2/ Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank)
3/ Alexandre Usov (Cofidis)
4/ Roger Hammond (Cervélo TestTeam)
5/ Sébastien Chavanel (Française des Jeux)
6/ Sébastien Hinault (AG2R-La Mondiale)
7/ Andreas Dietziker (Vorarlberg-Corratec)
8/ Martin Reimer (Cervélo TestTeam)
9/ Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
10/ Romain Feillu (Agritubel)
The race's official website was recently completely renewed, but unfortunately the site doesn't offer any information about what happened in the race. Fortunately DirectVelo was there to publish information about the race.
The next big event is Paris-Tours which will start Place du Châtelet in Chartres this Sunday!
** Paris-Bourges didn't take place in 1914, 1915 and 1916, from 1926 until 1946, from 1958 until 1970 and in 1989. door Thomas Vergouwen
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Pour les lecteurs interessés: Le vainqueur de cette course viens de la même ville autant que le grand Jan Ullrich [et moi :)]: Rostock, la ville très magnifique sur la mer baltique.