Mathieu Ladagnous wins third stage as Leukemans takes overall lead of Tour du Limousin 2011
FDJ team’s Mathieu Ladagnous showed an exhilarating effort in the third stage of Tour du Limousin on Thursday, August 18. Bjorn Leukemans maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Lanouaille and ended in St Yrieix La Perche. The 26-year-old French professional cyclists took the total of 4 hours, 42 minutes and 32 seconds to cover the distance of 181 kilometres.
Recently, Ladagnous took the first place in the first stage of Tour de Wallonie. He also took the first stage of La Tropicale Amissa in 2009.
Samuel Dumoulin of Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne was runner-up and Jeremie Galland of Saur – Sojasun was in third place with the same timing of Ladagnous.
With just 30 kilometres to go, the two cyclists Frédéric Guesdon of FDJ and Laszlo Bodrogi of Team Type 1 managed to get away and build an advantage of 3 minutes and 40 seconds over the next 12 kilometres. The FDJ team controlled the peloton and opened up
a lead as both of them managed to extend their lead to 4’20” ahead.
After the counter attack was formed the lead was down to three minutes. The group of seven cyclists made a counter attack including, Pierrick Fedrigo, Anthony Geslin, Matthieu Ladagnous, Ben Gastauer, Leukemans, Johnny Hoogerland and Egoitz Garcia. The peloton
was in no mood to let Leukemans escape though.
After 51 kilometres to go, the group of five cyclists Blel Kadri, Jonathan Thire, Anthony Geslin, Sebastien Joly and Loic Desriac immediately attacked and caught the two leading cyclists Bodrogi and Guesdon. With 23 kilometres to go, Kadri attacked and tried
to get away while AG2R managed to stay 1 minute and 10 seconds clear over the peloton in the last 10 kilometres.
The two cyclists including, Julien Simon and Arnaud Gerard working together and caught up with Kadri. In the last kilometres, Ladagnous increased his pace and crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling team’s Bjorn Leukemans took overall lead with the timing of 13 hours, 42 minutes and 40 seconds. Florian Guillou was runner-up with 9 seconds down to Bjorn.
The stage winner Matthieu Ladagnous was in third place with the difference of 13 seconds ahead of Tony Gallopin and Degand.
The final stage will run in Lacs de Haute Charente and end in Limoges and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 180 kilometres.
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