Tony Gallopin wins second stage as Leukemans retains overall lead in Tour Du Limousin 2011
Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne team’s Tony Gallopin showed a tremendous performance and escaped from the group of 45-man peloton to take his second stage victory in Tour du Limousin 2011 on Wednesday, August 17.
The race started in Hilaire Peyroux and ended in Allassac. The 23-year-old French professional cyclists increased his pace in the final kilometres and took the total of 5 hours and 26 seconds to cover the distance of 184 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Tony told the media, "I told my teammates yesterday [after stage one -ed.] that I was surprised that I was going well. Today we were on a tough course which is not usually to my liking. Off they went and I followed."
The stage one winner Bjorn Leukemans was in 12th place but he remained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
With 36 kilometres to go, the flurry of attacks were brought back the peloton and group of four cyclists formed right combination and got away including, Maxime Méderel (Big Mat-Auber 93) and Anthony Geslin (FDJ), Antoine Lavieu (Cofidis) and Yukiya Arashiro
(Team Europcar).
All of them managed to gain an advantage of two minutes while Anthony Ravard of Ag2r-La Mondiale increased his pace and attacked the peloton as he tried his best to across the bridge but Tony was unable to hold the pace and brought himself back.
After 54 kilometres, breakaway cyclists extend his lead with 3 minutes and 40 seconds but the gap was down to 2 minute and 15 second after 103 kilometres. Mederel tried his best to take a lead and continue his solo effort but failed.
In the final six kilometres, the five cyclists working well together but all of them were caught by the peloton. Finally, Gallopin went to attack and increased his pace and crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Matthieu Ladagnous of FDJ was in second place in the field sprint with 6 seconds down to Tony. Jure Kocjan of Type 1 – Sanofi finished third and Sebastien Turgot was in fourth place.
Bjorn Leukemans took overall lead with the timing of 9 hours and 8 seconds while Florian Guillou was runner-up with 9 seconds down to Belgium.
Leukemans said, "I didn't come to the Tour de Limousin to win, but our team was at the front and was pulling, we defended the leader's jersey. We didn't get any help, I expected that because it is always like this in France. Once we have the leader's jersey,
nobody helps us."
The stage winner Tony was in third place with the difference of 14 seconds ahead of Thomas Degand and Metthieu Ladagnous.
The second last stage will run in Lanouaille and end in St Yrieix La Perche. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 181 kilometres.
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