|
||||||
|
14,15,16 of july 2003
|
|
 |
|
|
• Your jersey number
• Rules
• Agenda
• Starting map
• The route
- The map
- Profile
• Time Schedule
- Part 1
- Part 2
• Course
• Past winners
• Stage cities
• Partners
|
|
| Pau-Bayonne - Wednesday, july the 16th 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 L'Etape du Tour Vélo Magazine: 16th of July
These 200 kilometres of race were testing for the 7000 riders who set off this morning. Josy POUEYTO, the Deputy Mayor of Pau gave the start, at 7h sharp ! For almost three quarters of an hour, there was a succession of bikes and the rattle of transponders at the intersection of the rue Bayard and the allées Grand Tour. The mountain passes of Labays, of Soudet, of Bargagui and of Burdincurutcheta were decisive for some : an initial filtering of riders took place at the Larrau site and there was a second elimination round at St Jean Le Vieux… The riders were running a little late in the first hundred kilometres : 11h30, Saint Jean-Le-Vieux, bib numbers 200 Laurent PAUMIER, 136 Laurent MARCON, 232 Loïc HERBETEAU, 426 Jean-Christophe CURRIT and n°49, Laurent ESTADIEU, were in the lead. 12h20, arrival at Hasparen, 10 minutes late. The riders: The first word pronounced by the riders interviewed was : "Tough" ! Takuma SATO, Japanese test driver, and bib number 18, was forced to stop his ascension at Arthémis due to a pain in his calf. He leaves for Japan this very evening for his next test session at the end of the week. Miguel INDURAIN, happy to have started in Bayonne, celebrated his 39th birthday on the route with his wife, children and friends and stopped at Larrau ! Loïc HERBRETEAU, Elite 2, won the 11th edition of l’Etape du Tour Vélo Magazine. He was 5th in 1994 in Luz Ardiden, and acknowledges that the competition is a tough one. "The final kilometres are long. It’s a great race, lots of people lining the route" Alain PROST, in 202nd position admits that he was rather surprised at the outcome : "from my reserve at the beginning due to persistent back pain, I think I managed my race well, my aim was to finish in the first 400, which I have done!" Christian GIRAUDEAU, 12th in the general classification, from the Salis Vélo Club, wanted to be among the top 10. "There’s a great atmosphere, I climbed the first ascension with Olano, you find yourself allies for the occasion".
 Contact:A.S.O. - l'Étape du Tour - Vélo Magazine 2, rue Rouget de Lisle - 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux Race Director : Jean-François Alcan (Edito) Competitors relation: Céline Changarnier Phone: 33 (0) 1 41.33.14.68 E-mail: letapedutour@aso.fr More contacts:  BAYONNE
- Office du TourismePhone: 05 59 46 01 46 E-mail: infos@bayonne-tourisme.com  PAU
- Office du TourismePhone: 05 59 27 27 08 E-mail: omt@ville-pau.fr |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
