Bjorn Leukemans retains overall lead in final stage of Tour du Limousin 2011
Vacansoleil-DCM team’s Bjorn Leukemans retained his overall leader’s yellow in Tour du Limousin 2011 on Friday, August 19. The race started on Lacs de Haute and ended in Limoges.
The Vacansoleil-DCM team was very happy with the performance of Leukemans because he maintained his overall leader’s jersey form the day first of the race.
He took the overall standing with the timing of 18 hours, 21 minutes and 48 seconds and stage winner Mattieu Ladagnous (FDJ) was in second place with 7 seconds behind Belgian.
After winning the stage, Leukemans was very happy and satisfied with his performance and told the media, “I came here to train for the upcoming classic races, but of course after day one I wanted to defend the yellow jersey."
He further added, "The whole team did a great job on a difficult course. This is my second race after the Tour de France and I'm full of confidence towards the coming races.”
In the stage, Leukemans and his Vacansoleil-DCM team would have to be attentive at all of the three intermediate sprints to grabs the three, two and one time bonuses. Although, the can gain a 10, 6 and 4 points in the last kilometres to stage.
In the beginning of the stage, Leukemans took the nine-second lead over Guillou while the Ladagnous was in third with further four second down. A total of 15 cyclists started the day with 14 at 30 seconds down to Leukeman’s.
The three cyclists break were general classification threats including, Cherel was 29 seconds, Roux was 31 seconds, and Vimpere was 39 seconds back to the Leukemans.
Leukemans showed his good effort and retained his lead while Florian Guillou (Bretagne – Schuller) was in third place with the difference of 13 seconds ahead of Tony Gallopin (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne) and Thomas Degand (Veranda's Willems – Accent).
Recently, Leukemans took the second place in Brabantse Pijl and grabbed seventh place in Amstel Gold Race and Ronde van Vlaanderen. He also took the first place in Druivenkoers-Overijse and sixth place in Paris-Roubaix in 2010.
Anthony Roux took the overall sprint and King of Mountain title in the stage while Tony Gallopin (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne) protected his white and green jersey of Best young rider.
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