In an effort to boost popularity, the bike company Fuji has decided to team up with french airline AirFrance to form a brand new French-American cycling team! The team is made up of mostly French and American cyclists, with a few exceptions. It is formed around riders such as Sylvain Chavenel, Tejay Van Garderen, and Janez Brajkovic. They also managed to grab a big contract with superstar Alexandre Vinokourov.
The team's notable goals include getting top three in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, and top ten in the Tour de France, as well as winning the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour of California.
Also, this is my first story so if anyone has any tips or pointers on how to make it any more interesting it would be great
Any kind of feedback is useful
The first race of this year was the Santos Tour down Under.
It was a sponsor goal to win the points competition in this race, so Romain Feillu would be the leader for this race.
Here is the entire lineup for the race:
Brice Feillu
Christophe Kern
Tony Gallopin
Jerome Coppel
Taylor Phunney
Adrian Daude
Romain Feillu
The first stage of the Tour was flat, and would favor the sprinters.
Tip: You might want to crop your photos with a program like photoshop or Paint.NET. As this makes your pictures easier to see without have to click on them to view. And in general it makes the story better all around.
Yeah I've been trying to do that but after I crop the photo when I upload it it goes back to the original
I'll try to fix it though because I see what you mean
Phunney, Foillu, Stutina? Have these riders changed their names again?
What DB do you play with? What level?
I use paint.net for converting the screenshots from png to jpg. very easy. Open the png ss with paint.net, click ctrl+shft+s, save as a jpg and close. Then you can choose between a .png and .jpg image to upload to photobucket. So when you choose the .jpg, everything is ok!
dienblad wrote:
Phunney, Foillu, Stutina? Have these riders changed their names again?
What DB do you play with? What level?
I use paint.net for converting the screenshots from png to jpg. very easy. Open the png ss with paint.net, click ctrl+shft+s, save as a jpg and close. Then you can choose between a .png and .jpg image to upload to photobucket. So when you choose the .jpg, everything is ok!
Ok thanks I'll try that. The first stage will be posted soon too
(I had a bunch of screenshots, but they were accidentally deleted, so all you'll get for this stage is a report without screenshots).
As usual at the beginning of this stage, there was an attack to form and early-morning breakaway. This one included 11 riders, including Jurgen roelandts and Danilo Hondo. They quickly pushed the gap to over one minute.
Mountain Sprint:
Finally, the breakaway managed to get some understanding, and they started to work together to push the gap out. It crawled to over three minutes before their legs began to tire, and AirFrance-Fuji took control of the peloton, ready to reel in the breakaway. Intermediate Sprint 1:
By the time they had crossed the second sprint point, the gap was coming down fast. They were finally caught with 70 kilometers to go. Now the peloton was getting ready for a massive bunch sprint. There were a few more small attacks, but they never amounted to anything. With 15 kilometers to go, the trains of AirFrance-Fuji and Garmin-Cervelo began to form, and they reached masive speeds that acutally split the peloton! Heinrich Haussler went first, and opened up a gap, and with about 1.4 kilometers to go, Tony Gallopin[b] launched Romain Feillu[/b], who began to catch Haussler fast. However, Matt Goss was on Feillu's wheel, and he overtook Feillu in the final 500 meters to secure the victory. Farrar had gotten mixed up in the peloton. Feillu managed a great second place, which wasn't expected of him, which got him into second place in the points competition behind Goss.
Although we didn't get the victory, the team was still happy with the podium place by Feillu.
Stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under is a 145 kilometer leg with one categorized climb smack in the middle of the stage.
Once again the aim of the stage for AirFrance-Fuji was to get Romain Feillu a stage win.
Favorites:
+++: Cavendish, Farrar, Greipel
++: Goss, Davis, Feillu
+: Haussler, Hotarovich,
Once again there was an early attack, this time by seven riders. However, they never opened up a large enough gap and fell immediately back into the peloton.
The first real attack came from six riders, who quickly opened up a gap of 40 seconds. Breakaway Riders
Spoiler
F. Sabatini - Liquigas
M. Sieberg - Omega PharmaLotto
M. Pelucchi - Geox-TMC
S. Houanard - AG2r
M. Cardoso - RadioShack
M. Burghardt - BMC
Pretty soon S. Hinault, G. Gardeyn, W. Silzberger, J. Aramendia, and M. Quinziato attacked from the AirFrance-Fuji led peloton to join the break. They didn't make the peloton any stronger though, and the breakaway was sucked up before the first intermediate sprint.
This set the stage for a sprint to grab green jersey points. Allan Davis took off first, with Romain Feillu right behind. Feillu began to gain on Davis, however there wasnt enough space left, and Davis nipped him at the line. Intermediate Sprint 1
Spoiler
1. Alan Davis - Astana 2.Romain Feillu - AirFrance-Fuji
3.Andre Greipel - Omega PharmaLotto
After the sprint, the pace died down, and no one seemed to ant to attack as they began the climb. Finally, it was Yuriv Krivstov of AG2r who made an attack with about 75 kilometers to go.
E. Viviani of Liquigas quikcly joined him, and they pushed the gap to over thirty seconds. It started to come down however, and Xavier Florencio launched an attack with one kilometer from the summit of the climb. He couldn't close the gap however, but still managed third place on the climb. Mountain Sprint
The breakaway was caught just after the mountain sprint, and once again the pace died down. Unluckily for AirFrance Fuji, Brice Feillu suffered a puncture, and was forced to drop to the back of the peloton as they approached the second intermediate sprint.
Without a proper leadout, Romain Feillu had to launch straight from the front with Alan Davis on his wheel. Once again it was Feillu and Davis battling for first, and Farrar and Greipel charging fast ffrom behind for third. Once again, it was Davis who won the sprint, just passing by Feillu at the last second Intermediate sprint 2:\
Spoiler
1. Alan Davis - Astana 2. Romain Feillu - AirFrance-Fuji
3. Tyler Farrar - Garmin-Cervelo
Feillu actually continued his momentum, and while the other sprinters fell back and were sucked into the peloton, he stayed ahead, This opened the door for Yuriy Krivstov to make another attack.
Feillu didn't want to waste his energy, so he slipped abck into the pack and let Krivstov go off on his own. With under 20 kilometers to go, Krivstov was about 30 seconds ahead, and once again the Garmin-Cervelo and AirFrance-Fuji trains began to form. Krivstov was caught with about 15 kilometers to go.
Everyone was getting ready for a sprint finish, with Cavendish and Davis sitting behind the Garmin-Cervelo train.
However, AirFrance-Fuji's train didn't last the entire way to the finish, and Feillu was forced to sprint from far out. Meanwhile, Cavendish took off at the perfect moment, and fought ahead of his teammate Matt Goss, for his first win of the season Feillu was dissapointed in his 8th place finish, especially compared to yesterday's great result. Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Mark Cavendish HTC-Highroad 3h33'01"
2. Matt Goss HTC-Highroad s.t.
3.Tyler Farrar Garmin-Cervelo s.t
4. Heinrich Haussler Garmin-Cervelo s.t
5. Edvald Boassen Hagen Team Sky s.t. ...8. Romain Feillu AirFrance-Fuji
21. Tony Gallopin AirFrance-Fuji
32. Jerome Coppel AirFrance-Fuji
37. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji
I accidentally simmed Stage 3, which sucked. No one on the team did anything, and they all sat in the back of the peloton, which let the breakaway escape and win the stage. It was a 13 man breakaway, and there were three riders caught between the peloton and the leaders.
Romain Feillu slipped down into 19th place in the overall standings, 1'08" behind, and the rest of the team was ten seconds behind him.
Stage Results
Spoiler
[spoiler]1. Adam Hansen Omega Pharma-Lotto 3h27'55"
2. Eros Capecchi Liquigas s.t.
3. Baden Cooke Saxo Bank-Sunguard s.t.
4. Lloyd Mondory AG2r s.t.
5. Martin Tjallingii Rabobank s.t.
Stage 4 of the Santos Tour Down Under was once again relatively flat. After a dissapointing finish in the sim after last stage, a podium place is no longer likely for any of the AirFrance-Fuji riders. However, Romain Feillu was still tied with Matt Goss for first in the green jersey competition.
Right away there were attacks from the peloton, led by A. Perez of Lampre.
They established a five man breakaway and gained a one minute gap over the peloton. However, AirFrance-Fuji was alert, and reeled them in after only a few kilometers. By this time, the riders were in the midst of a very long, but not very steep climb.
Another attack was launched by M. Pelucchi of Geox-TMC and A. Vacioso of Androni-Giocatolli.
They too, however, didn't get very far ahead. AirFrance-Fuji was still riding strong.
As the peloton approached the summit of the climb, Elias Viviani of Liquigas attacked. Jerome Coppel and Taylor Phunney both countered, and caught up quickly. Coppel surged by to take maximum points, and Phunney got second, just edging Viviani at the line. Mountain Sprint
Once again it was Vacioso of Androni-Giocatolli who tried to launch his own attack, and he was followed by I. Stannard of Team Sky and D. Guitierrez of Geox-TMC.
There was some conflict with the AirFrance-Fuji team on whether or not to chase the breakaway or not, and they decided that they had to, in order to get Feillu some green jersey points, but they didn't go all out. there was still over 70 kilometers to go, and odds were that they would be caught anyway.
I. Stannard won the intermediate sprint, without much competition. Intermediate Sprint 2
Spoiler
1. Ian Stannard Team Sky
2. Angel Vacioso Androni Giocatolli
3. Elia Viviani
Both Bernard Eisel and Yaroslav Popovich tried to attack, but once they caught up to the breakaway, it was caught by AirFrance-Fuji and the charging peloton.
There were a few more useless attacks that amounted to nothing, but pretty soon it was just down to the peloton. However, there was a fall in the back of the peloton, which involved KOtM leader Xavier Florencio.
At this point the trains had formed, and were plunging towards the finish. there was a lot of bumping around in the peloton, and the trains were battling for position. The Garmin-Cervelo train bumped the AirFrance-Fuji train out of the way, and took control, giving Feillu another bad position to sprint from, but he took off anyway, alongside Matt Goss. Goss took control and fired for the line, passing by everyone and taking his second win of the Tour. Feillu came across in sixth place, which was dissapointing, but wasn't too bad. The only problem is that he would fall back in the green jersey competition.
Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Matt Goss HTC-Highroad 3h09'09"
2. Allan Davis Astana s.t.
3. Enrico Gasporatto Astana s.t.
4. Tyler Farrar Garmin-Cervelo
5. Andre Greipel 6. Romain Feillu AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
...11. Tony Gallopin AirFrance s.t.
25. Christophe Kern AirFrance s.t.
29. Taylor Phinney AirFrance s.t.
Stage 4 was considered a flat stage, but did have two categorized climbs near the end of the stage, unlike most of the others so far in the Tour. this would be ideal for AirFrance-Fuji, to get Feillu sprint points, and Coppel KOtM points.
The plan was to make sure no breakaways got away, so Feillu could get points at both the sprint points. then, when they approached the climbs, to launch Coppel into a breakaway and get him maximum points. If he could, he was to continue and try to win the stage, otherwise he would drop back to give Feillu a hand.
There were a lot of attacks early on, as expected.
++++++++++++
AirFrance-Fuji took control of the peloton, desperate to not let the breakaway get away. However, their efforts were fruitless as the breakaway got a big enough lead to get them to the first intermediate sprint point. Intermediate sprint point 1:
Spoiler
the break was caught shortly after the first sprint point, and AirFrance-Fuji knew that they couldn't allow that to happen again. But it did. this time it was T. De Gendt and B. Eisel who attacked. Feillu was halfway down the peloton, and he tried to attack after them. He gained ground quickly, but was just short of catching up when they arrived at the sprint point. All he got was 2 points so far in the day, out of a possible 12. At least none of his rivals got any, so that was a good part.
++++++++++++ Intermediate Sprint 2
Spoiler
1. Bernard Eisel HTC-Highroad
2. Yhomas De Gendt Vacansoleil 3. Romain Feillu AirFrance-Fuji
After the group of three was caught and the peloton began the climb, an attack was launched by Yuriy Krivstov, and six other riders followed, including jerome Coppel. AirFrance-Fuji stopped commanding the peloton, and allowed the breakaway to build a lead, because it contained Coppel. Coppel attacked before the summit, and broke free to take maximum points.
+++++++++ Mountain Sprint 1
Spoiler
1. Jerome Coppel AirFrance-Fuji
2. Steve Chainel FDJ
3. Maxime Vuntomme Katusha
At this point, there were three groups ahead of the peloton. Coppel was about 20 seconds ahead of the group of six that he had just escaped from to get the points. Then there was a group of two 1'12" behind them, and the peloton was 1'05" behind that pair. Coppel allowed the group of six to catch him in order to conserve energy.
As they approached the second mountain sprint, S. Chiinel and P. Lastras attacked, and outsprinted a tired Coppel to the line.
++++++++++++++++ Mountain Sprint 2
Spoiler
1. Steve Chiinel FDJ
2. Pablo Lastras Movistar 3. Jerome Coppel
Coppel began to fall behind the two leaders on the descent, so AirFrance-Fuji finally took control of the peloton with about 7 kilometers to go. They formed a small train of only four riders, because the others had been worn down by the climbs, and Coppel was out in front. Ciinel and Lastras were too far ahead, and battled out with each other for the stage, while the peloton was battling for fourth place. Coppel was caught with about one kilometer to go.
Lastras was too strong for Chiinel, and pulled ahead to grab the stage win. A great win for him.
++++++++++
In the race for third, Feillu went a little too earlier, and Allan Davis was able to pass him at the very end, however Feillu still finished fourth.
We weren't ecstatic about the day's stage, but there were some bright spots.
Coppel grabbed the KOtM jersey, and Feillu finished 4th on the stage.
Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Pablo Lastras Movistar 3h09'25"
2. Steve Chiinel FDJ s.t.
3. Allan Davis Astana s.t. 4. Romain Feillu AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
5. Heinrich Haussler Garmin-Cervelo s.t. ... 14. Tony Gallopin AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
32. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
34. Jerome Coppel AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
The sixth and final stage of the Tour Down Under was the flattest of the all, yet still had two places to capture KOtM points. This was the final place for Feillu to win the green jersey over Goss and Davis.
As the stage began, there were multiple attacks that got nowhere and amounted to nothing. The first dangerous attack came from Marcus Burghardt, Xavier Florencio, and Lawrence Ten Dam less than 10 kilometers from the first sprint point.
Five more riders attacked as well and crossed the short gap to the leaders, including Yaroslav Popovich. They stretched the gap up to 50 seconds, but it began to come down rapidly, so Popovich attacked and went off solo.
The peloton caught the other seven riders with ease, and moved off after Popovich. The lead, however, was too much to overcome in the last two kilometers left, so the sprint was for second place. At least that's what everyone thought. AirFrance-Fuji started working their butts off, and managed to close the gap to ten seconds with one kilometer left. They launched Feillu, who soared right past Popovich to take maximum points. Intermediate Sprint 1
Spoiler
1. Romain Feillu AirFRance-Fuji
2. Yaroslav Popovich RadioShack
3. Allan Davis Astana
Davis managed to grab third place, which put him in the virtual yellow jersey. Feillu was tied with Goss for second, two points behind Davis.
Yuriy Krivstov, not surprisingly, fired away and attacked, yet again. He had definately been the most aggressive rider so far. He crossed the mountain sprint in first. Popovich outsprinted Coppel for second, but Coppel still held the KOtM jersey. Mountain Sprint 1
As soon as they were pulled back into the peloton, Popovich took off again after Krivstov, who was 1'09" ahead of the peloton.
Popovich was quickly pulled back in, and the only effect he had was to speed up the peloton, and bring the gap to Krivstov to under one minute, with 39 kilometers to go. Krivstov must have heard this, because he began to work twice as hard. He went ahead by 1'24" as they approached the sprint point. Feillu took off from the front of the peloton, and Tony Gallopin followed to take points away from Davis, and he succeeded. Intermediate Sprint 2
The gap to Krivstov began to come down after the sprint point, and soon it was down to 36 seconds. Coppel didn't need to attack for the mountain sprint, because he already had offically won the jersey. Mountain Sprint 2
Spoiler
1. Yuriy Krivstov AG2r
2. M. Welson Garmin-Cervelo
3. S. Vinmarcke Garmin-Cervelo
Krivstov was finally caught with about 20 kilometers to go, and the trains began to form. Once again it was AirFrance-Fuji and Garmin-Cervelo who made two large trains that commanded the peloton. J. Hunt from Team Sky attacked with five kilometers to go, and tried to open up a big enough gap to last him to the finish line, but it wasn't likely.
He was caught with three kilometers to go.
AirFrance-Fuji's train fell apart, and Feillu was forced to hook onto Edvald Boassen Hagen's wheel. Unfortunately, Feillu didn't have enough energy left to stay with Boassen Hagen, who took off for the stage. Farrar pulled around him, however, and fired forward to grab the stage win.
Allan Davis pulled around Feillu at the last minute, who finished fourth for the second straight stage.
The finish was extremely close, and Farrar barely beat out Boassen Hagen in a photo finish.
By letting Davis grab third place, Feillu lost the green jersey competition by two points, but at least Jerome Coppel got the KOtM jersey.
Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Tyler Farrar Garmin-Cervelo 2h05'50"
2. Edvald Boassen Hagen Team Sky s.t.
3. Allan Davis Astana s.t. 4. Romain Feillu AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
5. Matthew Goss HTC-Highroad s.t. ... 23. Tony Galloping AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
51. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
58. Taylor Phinney AirFrance-Fuji
So we didn't complete the sponsor goal, but it could still be considered a successful Tour, because we won the KOtM competition, and it was the first full tour riding together.
After being rejected to being allowed in the Tour of Malaysia, AirFrance-Fuji instead entered in the Giro della Callabria. It was a three stage race, all being small mountain stages. We entered a relatively weak team, with Christophe Kern being the leader.
Christophe Kern
John-Lee Augustyn
Tony Gallopin
Guillame Levarlet
Peter Stutina
Taylor Phinney
Adrien Daude
David Fleury
The first stage was flat for almost the entire stage, until the end, when it kicked up for a climb, that would be tough on many riders. Unfortunately, I accidentally simmed the stage yet again, and once again I got screwed. All of the riders are over three minutes behind in the overall standings after the stage. Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Tiziana Dall' Antonia Liquigas 4h03'25"
2. Charles Wegelius UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling s.t.
3. Jelle Willies Top-Sport s.t.
4. Allessandro Prini Anna Savon s.t.
5. Marcel Wyss Geox-TMC +0'19" ... 72. Taylor Phinney AirFrance-Fuji +2'35"
75. Peter Statina AirFrance-Fuji +2'35"
77. Tony Gallopin AirFrance-Fuji 2'35"
Stage 2 was also a mountain stage, but this one had one at the beginning as well as at the end. Christophe Kern and John Lee Augustyn were the leaders for the day.
As always, there was an attack very early on of five riders. Early Breakaway Riders
Spoiler
K. Szczawinski Miche
B. Schroeder Nutrixxion
G. Cheula Geox-TMC
A. Musciarelli Anna Savon
T. Skujins La Pomme
The peloton split up early on into several different groups, some not being able to keep up the with the pace of the leaders. Five riders escaped from the peloton, including John Lee Augustyn, Peter Statina, and Christophe Kern.
Soon after that, two more riders joined the leaders, and they built up a one minute lead over the peloton.
The AirFrance-Fuji riders in the breakaway got free and went over the first Mountain Sprint, grabbing all of the available points. Mountain Sprint 1
Spoiler
1. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji
2. John Lee Augustyn AirFrance-Fuji
3. Peter Statina AirFrance-Fuji
J. Castroviejo of Euskatel-Euskadi was dropped by the leaders, which at this point was almost three minutes.
The gap continued to grow rapidly, and soon it was up to 6'30", but there was still 123 kilometers to go.
Joe Eldridge of Team Type 1 abandoned at the back of the race.
At this point, Christophe Kern left the rest of the riders in the breakaway behind and started off solo.
Castroviejo was eventually caught by the peloton, which at this point was 10'45" behind Christophe Kern, and 5'16" behind the group with Augustyn and Statina. Slowly but surely, Kern began to pull away, and the group behind him got a little closer to the peloton. Kern won the intermediate sprint with ease, and continued to cruise towards the finish. He also won the second mountain sprint.
There were many attacks from the peloton, and riders were strung out everywhere across the rode. Kern was way ahead, eight minutes ahead of anyone else. D. Malacarne was next down the rode, also riding solo. one minute behind him was R. Kiservlowski of Astana. 1'37" behind him was the group of nine containing Augustyn and Statina. Behind them were many groups of riders, strung out in every shape and form ahead of the peloton. Guillame Levarlet was in one group of six, 46' ahead of the peloton. Kern had 14 kilometers to go until the finish line, and he had a lead of eight minutes over the next closest riders, but he couldn't let up. kern was tiring fast, and the gap was coming down. However, he still managed to hang on to the stage win, by a pretty solid margin.
The group with Augustyn and Statina was caught in the final kilometer, and Levarlet shot ahead with Phinney on his wheel, and both of them got a top ten finish. It was a pretty great stage for AirFrance-fuji and they were very happy with the results.
Stage Results
Spoiler
1. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji 5h15'39"
2. David Malacarne Quickstep +2'09"
3. Robert Kiserlovski Astana +4'13"
4. Volodymyr Zagorodney Miche +5'33"
5. Amets Txurruka Euskatel-Euskadi +6'03" 6. Guilame Levarlet AirFrance-Fuji +7'10"
7. Taylor Phinneyb AirFrance-Fuji +7'10"
... 12. Peter Statina AirFrance-Fuji +7'25"
25. John Lee Augustyn AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
62. Tony Gallopin AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
Overall GC
Spoiler
1. Christophe Kern AirFrance-Fuji 9h21'49"
2. David Malacarne Quickstep +0'37"
3. Robert Kiserlovski Astana +2'45"
4. Tiziano Dall'Antonia Liquigas +4'40"
5. Volodymyr Zagorodney Miche +4'56" 39. Taylor Phinney AirFrance-Fuji +7'36"
40. Guillame Levarlet AirFrance-Fuji s.t.
52. Peter Stutina AirFrance-fuji +7'51"
So pretty much everyone was happy after the stage, because it gave us a top three position in all categories except for U25, and Christophe Kern had the lead in two. Overall, a pretty great stage.
Recently, I recieved a great email that informed me that I was to be the manager of the French national team at the upcoming world championships! I must say that it was quite a boost of confidence.
Before the final stage of the Giro della Calabria, another race was scheduled for the team. It was the GP de Marseille, a 192 kilometer undulating one day race, and AirFrance-Fuji had put out a pretty stacked team I must say.
Sylvain Chavenel
Alexandre Vinokourov
Tejay Van Garderen
Janez Brajkovic
Steven Cozza
Romain Feilu
The only problem was that all of the riders were in pretty bad form. It was all of their first races of the year, besides Feillu, who had ridden in the Tour Down Under recently.
In the first few kilometers, there weren't any attacks, until finally one came about ten kilometers in.
It never got above thirty seconds however, as Steven Cozza led the peloton, and chased the breakaway down.
Just after that, Hubert Dupont of AG2r attacked right away, and attempted to break free. He too was chased down by Cozza, which launched Gregory Habeaux of Veranda's. He opened up a pretty solid gap very quickly, yet was also immediately chased down.
This opened up a chance for four more riders to break free and go for a chance to get away, and yes, you guessed it, they were chased down in a matter of a few kilometers.
This process continued to repeat itself for a long time, with riders attempting to get away before being brought right back.
Saur-Sojasun and AirFrance-Fuji were commanding the peloton, and were stretching it long and keeping any breakaway riders from getting far.
The peloton had an iron grip on any escapees, until Steve Chainel of FDJ attacked with about 15 kilometers to go.
He opened up a pretty good gap, but it started to come down, and with 7 kilometers to go, it was at 25 seconds. right then, Alexandre Vinokourov and Sylvain Chavanel decided to stretch their legs and attack as well. They quickly caught up to Chainel and offered him a hand. Romain Feillu hooked onto the wheel of Sebastien Hinault, and got ready for the final sprint, if there was to be one. The three leaders were caught with about three kilometers to go, so Vinokourov and Chavanel attacked again, going for the finish. Feillu lined up for the sprint, and went at the perfect time, passing by several riders, yet Sebastien Hinault cut him off, and hgave him no space to maneuver. Feillu was boxed in, and didn't have any space to get around the other riders, so Hinault took the win. However, it was in very bad fashion, as he had cut off Feillu and gave him no space to get around.
