The Grand Prix d'Isbergues saw today the formation of a 5 riders strong breakaway, rapidly after the start, and these riders stayed ahead in the race the whole day long. While approaching the final circuit, this group lost 2 riders and the remaining trio was brought back to only one rider ahead of the race in the end. Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), who was also at the origin of this breakaway, was finally also taken back by the peloton and the victory was thus decided in a sprint. Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr) stays ahead of last year's winner, John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano), to take home the flowers from Isbergues!

The summary of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2013

Just before noon, the start of this forelast race of the Coupe de France PMU was given in the streets of Isbergues for 2 short laps after the km 0, followed by a bigger lap north of Isbergues and the part in line of this race, with its sprints and climbs, bringing the riders back to the final circuit in Isbergues, which they had to do 5 times.

In the second short lap, after 5 kilometers in the race, Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) attacked and his attack led to the formation of the breakaway, in which the Belgian rider got company from Gert Joeaar (Cofidis, solutions crédits), Théo Vimpère (BigMat-Auber 93), Julien Duval (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and Reidar Borgersen (Joker-Merida).

These 5 leading riders rapidly created a gap on the peloton, up to 6'30" after about thirty kilometers. In the breakaway, Julien Duval won all 6 intermediate sprints, and he thus went home with the prize associated to the corresponding classification.
While behind them the different sprinter teams and mainly Europcar, Argos-Shimano (with Tom Stamsnijder riding almost all day long at the head of the peloton) and FDJ.fr start riding to control the gap, the Norwegian rider Reidar Borgersen then decides to go for "mountain" classification and he manages to win it by arriving on top first for each of them, except for the first one (where Théo Vimpère was ahead of him) and the two last ones. Indeed, Borgersen and Théo Vimpère lose contact with the breakaway in the last climb where Julien Duval arrives first on top.

It was thus a leading trio which crosses the finish line in Isbergues for the first time when there are still 5 laps remaining on the local circuit. The gap on the peloton there is just under 2 minutes. At the second crossing of the finish line the gap is down to 1 minute 15 and at two laps from the finish they only have a few hundreds of meters left on the peloton which is eager to let this race finish in a bunch sprint. That was the sign for Julien Duval to sit up and Gert Joeaar did the same a bit later, thus leaving Greg van Avermaet finish like he started this race, attacking alone at the head of the race, but he was also taken back at about 5 kilometers from the finish.

The whole bunch thus went off to te finish line and Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr) turned out to be the winner of the sprint, ahead of John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano) and Jempy Drucker (Accent Jobs-Wanty). John Degenkolb indicated he wanted to reclaim the victory saying that Arnaud Démare pushed him but the race jury decided to award the victory to Démare anywa!

The result of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2013

Here's the top 10 of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2013:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr) - 4h34'05"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano)
3/ Jempy Drucker (Accent Jobs-Wanty)
4/ Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team)
5/ Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team)
6/ Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille)
7/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale)
8/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar)
9/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
10/ Julien Simon (Sojasun)

The classification of the Coupe de France PMU 2013

By finishing 8th in this race, Bryan Coquard (Europcar) takes the first place in the Coupe de France PMU 2013 classification (133 points), ahead of the former leader Anthony Geslin (FDJ.fr) with 5 points difference and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) with 13 points difference.

The photos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2013

153 photos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues have now been published:

>> The photos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2013

Later on, probably tomorrow, you'll most probably also find a video summary of this race.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Grand Prix d'Isbergues | Coupe de France