32nd Route du Sud - Stage 1
The day the when the escape really got away; away in a big Way! Simon Gerrans in the first yellow jersey of the "Road of the South"

Stage 1: Lusignan Petit - Boulougne-sur-Gesse, 206km
The first stage is a rolling test that favors a mass arrival as it often has. Today the scenario called for a break of  seventeen riders who engineered an escape at 40 kilometers, with a good mix of representation of assembled teams: 

Alexander Arekeev and Luca Pierfelici (Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo), Jean-Marc Bideau et Florian Guillou (Roubaix Lille Métropole), Steve Chainel (Auber 93), Nicolas Crosbie (Bouygues Telecom), Hubert Dupont and Laurent Mangel (Ag2r La Mondiale), Simon Gerrans (Crédit Agricole), Gregory Habeaux (Mitsubishi-Jartazi), Nicolas Hartmann (Cofidis), Noan Lelarge (Bretagne-Armor Lux), Daniel Martin (Slipstream Chipotle-H30), Christophe Moreau (Agritubel), Pasquale Muto (Miche), Jérémy Roy (Française des Jeux) et Ramon Troncoso (Karpin-Galicia).

The peloton chased for a short time but seemed to give up to the large group that went up the road quickly to open a gap of ten minutes. No worries for the peloton or so they thought as they settled in for the long haul over the remaining 160 kilometers.  However, the group worked well together, well much better than the assembled 100 wannabe chasers gathering almost a 40 minute gap in the process.

Approaching the final 20 kilometers and the one Cat 3 bump in the road the brawl started among the escapees with relentless attacks with each attempt aimed at thinning rivals with the result it was divided into two groups and then pulled together again... as attacks again shook the front.

Hubert Dupont, Simon Gerrans and Nicolas Hartmann emerged with a gap as the group behind splintered once and then twice as the trio kept the first group of chasers at over 30 seconds while the second smaller group at a minute. And so it was that the trio ahead would decide the first stage win and the race leader of the "road of the South" after over 160 kilometers in the break

Credit Agricole's Simon Gerrans took the sprint over Ag2r's Hubert Dupont with Nicolas Hartmann of Cofidis following at 12 seconds for the final podium step. Pasquale Muto (Miche) and Daniel Martin of Garmin/Chipotle (former Slipstream team) filled out the top five at 20 seconds.

The rest of the survivors of the break came in over the next 2 minutes with Alexander Arkeev the final breakmate finishing 8 minutes down.

The remains of the peloton were led in by 18 141 Timo Albiez at 36 minutes and 54 seconds, with one Anthony Ravard leading the peloton... the rest of the peloton... I mean all 100 of them at 37 minutes 26 seconds behind race leader Gerrans effectively taking them out of contention in the race.

Tomorrows stage...  the general classification could easily shake up with a 17 km mountain time-trial, gaining 900m in altitude, up to Cauterets (Cambasque). With 11 riders in serious contention, the others will be attempting to see how much they can gain; or better said how much time the top 16 will lose on the tough day on the uphill time trial.

Stage 1 Results
Lusignan Petit - Boulougne-sur-Gesse,
206km - 4h52'05'' -
1 53 GERRANS Simon C.A 4h52'05'' 10''
2 41 DUPONT Hubert ALM à 01'' 6''
3 25 HARTMANN Nicolas COF à 12'' 4''
4 95 MUTO Pasquale MIE à 20''
5 127 MARTIN Daniel TSL ''
6 138 PIERFELICI Luca ASA ''
7 81 BIDEAU Marc RLM à 29''
8 43 MANGEL Laurent ALM à 31''
9 83 GUILLOU Florian RLM à 36''
10 18 ROY Jérémy FDJ à 40''
11 131 AREKEEV Alexander ASA à 48''

12 1 MOREAU Christophe AGR à 01'41''
13 102 RAMON Troncoso S. KGZ ''
14 75 LELARGE Noan BAL ''
15 112 HABEAUX Gregory MIT ''
16 62 CHAINEL Steve AUB à 02'01''
17 34 CROSBIE Nicolas BTL à 08'35''

18 141 ALBIEZ Timo STE à 36'54''
19 8 RAVARD Anthony AGR à 37'26''
20 117 RICCI POGGI Martial MIT ''
21 47 ROUSSEAU Nicolas ALM ''
22 7 LEQUATRE Geoffroy AGR ''
23 15 LE BOULANGER Yoann FDJ ''
24 33 CLERC Aurélien BTL ''
25 85 MOUCHERAUD Paul RLM ''
26 137 PAOLINI Luca ASA ''
27 91 NIEMIEC Przemyslaw MIE ''
28 114 DROUILLY Mathieu MIT ''
29 65 JEANNESSON Arnold AUB ''
30 21 BUFFAZ Mickaël COF ''
31 111 ABAKOUMOV Igor MIT ''
32 121 DANIELSON Thomas TSL ''
33 126 PATOUR Kilian TSL ''
34 17 OFFREDO Yoann FDJ ''
35 115 NEVENS Sven MIT ''
36 37 RENIER Franck BTL ''
37 101 CESAR VELOSO Gustavo KGZ ''
38 56 LE MEVEL Christophe C.A ''
39 98 USAI Stefano MIE ''
40 46 SENAC Jean-Charles ALM ''
41 104 ABAL DIEGO David KGZ ''
42 105 PALEO Alejandro KGZ ''
43 67 MORIZOT Florian AUB ''
44 3 GONZALO RAMIREZ Eduardo AGR ''
45 52 FOFONOV Dmitriy C.A ''
46 26 HARY Maryan COF ''
47 76 PIVOIS Yann BAL ''
48 2 JALABERT Nicolas AGR ''
49 134 GENTILI Massimiliano ASA ''
50 24 HUGUET Yann COF ''
51 23 EL FARES Julien COF ''
52 38 SOKOLOV Evgeny BTL ''
53 73 LE FLOCH Guillaume BAL ''
54 124 LAURENT Christophe TSL ''
55 97 CARTA Maurizio MIE ''
56 6 RINERO Christophe AGR ''
57 77 POILVET Benoît BAL ''
58 22 DE WEERT Kevin COF '' à 37'26''
59 4 COUTOULY Cedric
60 35 GENE Yohann
61 88 VACHON Florian
62 144 CHARLES Xavier
63 135 CAVALLARI Stefano
64 14 JEGOU Lilian
65 92 SZCZAWINSKI Krzysztof
66 31 BERNAUDEAU Giovanni
67 44 RIBLON Christophe
68 145 KORKOTYAN Tigran
69 87 DELROT Bastien
70 118 VAN TOMME Maxime
71 42 LOUBET Julien
72 5 BERGES Emilien Benoit
73 45 POULHIES Stéphane
74 103 MARTINEZ Serafin
75 107 CASTANO PANADERO Carlos
76 106 FERNANDEZ Alberto
77 113 KRIIT Kalle
78 32 CLAUDE Mathieu
79 16 VEIKKANEN Jussi
80 12 CHEREL Mikael
81 72 GAUTIER Cyril
82 13 GUDSELL Timothy
83 93 GIUNTI Massimo
84 116 DAVIS Allan
85 82 CAZAUX Pierre
86 94 CARVAJAL JARAMILLO Edwin
87 125 LOWE Trent
88 86 ROBIN Denis
89 96 SERRI Eddy
90 133 GARZELLI Stefano
91 132 CODOL Massimo
92 136 MILAN JIMENEZ Diego
93 28 VILLA Romain
94 66 MESPOULEDE Jean
95 128 PETERSON Thomas
96 54 HIVERT Jonathan
97 61 BROUZES Niels
98 64 GALLAND Jérémie
99 58 MEDEREL Maxime
100 84 LARPE Mickael
101 63 CHEDHOMME Morgan
102 123 FARRAR Tyler
103 108 MAYOZ ECHEVERRIA Iban
104 74 LELAY David
105 55 HUNT Jeremy
106 11 STUBBE Tom
107 122 FRISCHKORN William
108 27 TAARAMAE Rein
109 57 MARINO Jean Marc
110 68 THIRE Jonathan

Abandons
Ab 36 HADDOU Saïd
Ab 142 AVALOS GARCIA Carlos
Ab 143 HAISER Michael
Ab 146 KRIENBÜHL Fabian
NP 147 LAULE Janusch
NP 148 WIELENMANN Marco

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