Thibaut Pinot wins final stage as Moncoutie takes overall lead in Tour de l’Ain 2011
FDJ team’s Thibaut Pinot showed his brilliant performance in the final climb to take the fourth and final stage of Tour de l’Ain 2011 on Sunday, August 14. David Moncoutie took the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Belley and ended in Le Grand Colombier. The 21-year-old French professional road bicycle race took the total of 3 hours, 45 minutes and 17 seconds to cover the distance of 134.8 kilometres.
Recently, Pinot showed his good efforts in Tour of Turkey by taking overall third place and also won the seventh stage of Criterium du Dauphine. He also secured overall seventh place in Bayern-Rundfahrt and young rider standing.
The race leader David Moncoutie of Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne was runner-up with 3 seconds down to Pinot. Leopold Konig of NetApp finished third with the difference of 1 minute and 4 seconds.
The three cyclists made their first breakaway after 25 kilometres to go including Geoffrey Soupe (FDJ), Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale) and Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp). The trio managed to receive an advantage of a few seconds over the peloton
while Guilaume took points and secured the first climb of the day.
Nicky Van Der Lijke (Rabobank Continental) attacked with Geoffrey Soupe of FDJ to catch the Frenchman but Bonnafond again took the second climb of the day.
However, in the final kilometres, Moncoutie and Konig tried their best to catch him but failed and with the help of FDJ team Pinot crossed the final line ahead of the other cyclists.
Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne team’s David Moncoutie took the overall standing with the timing of 14 hours, 5 minutes and 55 seconds. Wout Poels of Vacansoleil-DCM was in second place with 43 seconds down to David.
Leopold Konig was in third place with the difference of 1 minute and 31 seconds ahead of Maxime Mederel.
Johnny Hoogerland took the overall King of Mountain title with 41 points ahead of Pinot. Wout Poels secured the overall sprint standing with 60 points.
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