Yann Huguet

March 7, 2013

Another Abandon Leaves Paris-Nice on Cuspides After Stage 3

Mattia Cattaneo of Lampre-Merida and Kanstantsin Siutsou of Sky Procycling share les Cuspides of the fulcrum at the end of Stage 3 of the Paris-Nice spring classic. José Ivan Gutierrez of Movistar did not start the third stage, bringing the number of surviving riders in the race to an even 178.

Cattaneo is 3 minutes 14 seconds behind the latest leader of the race, the American Andrew Talansky of Garmin Sharp, and more than 17 minutes ahead of the new Lanterne Rouge, Yann Huguet of Team Argos-Shimano. Huguet, as you will recall, had the median time after the Prologue.

On the stage, Ruben Plaza of Movistar and Gustav Larsson of IAM Cycling finished on the cusp. And our Stage 1 Point d’Appui, Jerome Cousin, brought up the rear of Stage 3.

The Stage 2 Point d’Appui, Jon Izagirre has moved up in the standings to 41st, and his brother Gorka contested for the stage win.

March 3, 2013

Cofidis Teammates on Cuspides for Paris-Nice Prologue

A pair of Cofidis riders, Jerome Coppel and Rein Taaramae, have taken the Cuspides on the Prologue of the Paris-Nice stage race, the unofficial start of the 2013 racing season.

It took less than five minutes for even the slowest rider, Andreas Klier of Garmin Sharp, to finish the 2.9 kilometer Prologue in the Paris suburb of Houilles. All 184 riders came home safely, so there is no Point d’Appui to be awarded on the Prologue. Coppel and Taaramae were both 13 seconds adrift.

Damien Gaudin of Europcar won the Prologue, narrowly edging out Sylvain Chavanel of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil-DMC. The Prologue win was unexpected for the Europcar Team, or at least anyone following Europcar. Chris Fontecchio over at Podiumcafe picked Europcar as the team whose ambition at Paris-Nice might be to “get noticed on camera at some point.” Gaudin has a string of first place finishes in the French national track championships, but this his first top finish in a stage race, albeit a Prologue that on paper looks more like a track race than a stage race.

A Frenchman, Yann Huguet of Team Argos-Shimano, had the median time of the day with right at 25 seconds.

Monday’s stage, 195 kilometers from Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Nemours, will be a romp for the sprinters. With only three seconds separating the middle 20 percent of the racers, anyone might slip into the fulcrum position by the end of the day.