Alex Dowsett wins final stage as Jesse Sergent retains overall lead in Charentes 2011
Sky Procycling team’s Alex Dowsett showed a tremendous effort in the fifth and final stage of Tour du Poitou Charentes 2011 on Friday, August 26. Jesse Sergent maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Saint-Jacques de Thouars and ended in Poitiers. The 22-year-old English racing cyclists took the total of 4 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds to cover the distance of 171.4 kilometres.
Recently, He took first place in London Nocturne and also took the overall sixth place in Ster ZLM Toer. Dowsett also grabbed fifth place in Danmark Rundt.
Davide Appollonio (Ita) Sky Procycling was runner-up with six seconds behind Dowsett and Moreno Hofland of Rabobank Continental finished third ahead of Insausti.
The race leader Jesse Sergent was in 36th place in the stage but he saved his overall standing with the timing of 15 hours, 14 minutes and 40 seconds. Dowsett was runner-up with 18 seconds behind Sergent ahead of Kwiatkowski.
Jesse Sergent said, “In the mean time four guys from Sky, with Dowsett, had attacked in the open fields and crosswinds. Kwiatkowski brought me to that final climb and then I had to sprint as fast as possible to the line. Fortunately Dowsett could only take
6 seconds.”
He further added, “I am especially glad that it all worked out as the team worked so hard, this was one of the fastest stages of this Tour and racing in France is always pretty tough. Attacks, attacks, attacks.”
In the first sprint the three cyclists made their breakaway lead including, Dowsett, Appollonio and Jeremy Hunt but Alex took maximum points ahead of the others. After a few kilometres, Steve Chainel launched an attack but Riblon gained a lead in the second
sprint. However, Christophe Riblon took the third sprint.
Sky team control the situation and lead out the sprint and their high speed in the final 10 kilometres. Dowsett took six second advantage and launched an attack in the last 3 kilomteres to cross the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
The 22 cyclists including, Lars Petter Nordhaug (Sky Procycling), Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Movistar Team) and José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Movistar Team) were disqualified.
Tags: