Anthony Roux wins first stage of 2011 Circuit de Lorraine Professional - Cycling News
Anthony Roux of the FDJ team won the first stage after beating Romain Feillu in a bunch sprint of the 2011 Circuit de Lorranie Professional on Wednesday, May 16.
The race started in Amneville and ended at Longwy. The 24-year-old, Anthony took a total 4 hours, 3 minutes and 6 seconds to cover the distance of 166 kilometres.
After finishing the stage Felliu said, "The last three kilometers hit the four-percent gradient, which made it very tough. Ultimately I was coming up too late to beat a very strong Roux.”
Feillu notched up six wins so far this season including the overall classification of the Tour de Picardie. This win has helped Feillu earn confidence of his team for the future consignments. The team’s sprinter said, "The team worked perfectly in the chase
of the early break and in the difficult final,"
Laurent Mangel of the Saur Sojasun team put in an excellent performance to claim third spot and pushed Movistar team’s Rui Faria Da Costa off the podium to fourth.
Fabio Felline, Jeremie Galland and Nacer Bouchanni were in fifth, sixth and seventh place respectively.
The stage was difficult for the riders because there were two sprints and four mountains. The first break came from the group of three riders Oleg Chuzhda (Caja Rural), Loïc Desriac (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and Fabio Piscopiello (De Rosa - Cermaica Flaminia).
Oleg gained advantage of four minutes and took the first sprint, the last two riders were caught by the peloton. In the final sprint, Romain Felliu maintained his speed ahead of Rui Faria and Kevin Reza.
Feillu's team-mates, Marco Marcato and Rob Ruygh, tried late to take the lead in the race but Ruygh was caught five hundred metres from the line. Feillu also tried to cross the line but Roux was in good form and crossed the finish line.
Previously, was in first place in the fifth stage of Circuit de Lorraine and was in overall in fourth place in 2010 Circuit de la Sarthe.
Anthony Roux was also took lead in the overall classification with timing of 4 hours, 2 minutes and 56 seconds. Romain Feillu was runner-up with one second behind Roux. Laurent Mangel managed to grab the third position with the difference of six seconds.
The next stage will start in Briey and end in Commercy. All the riders will cover a distance of 168 kilometres.
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