2010 Cofidis season

2010 Cofidis season
Manager Eric Boyer
One-day victories 5
Stage race overall victories 4
Stage race stage victories 12
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The 2010 season for Cofidis began in January with La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. It was the team's first season as a UCI Professional Continental team, after being relegated from UCI ProTour status after the 2009 season. The team had been part of the ProTour since the ProTour's inception in 2005. The team carries wildcard status in 2010, meaning they are eligible to be invited to any ProTour event should the organizers wish to include them.

The team's manager is former cyclist Eric Boyer, who has led the team since 2005.

2010 roster

Ages as of January 1, 2010.

Rider Date of birth
 Stéphane Augé (FRA) December 6, 1974 (aged 35)
 Guillaume Blot (FRA) March 28, 1985 (aged 24)
 Mickaël Buffaz (FRA) May 21, 1979 (aged 30)
 Rémi Cusin (FRA) February 3, 1986 (aged 23)
 Samuel Dumoulin (FRA) August 20, 1980 (aged 29)
 Leonardo Duque (COL) April 10, 1980 (aged 29)
 Julien El Fares (FRA) June 1, 1985 (aged 24)
 Jean Eudes Demaret (FRA) July 25, 1984 (aged 25)
 Julien Fouchard (FRA) June 20, 1986 (aged 23)
 Tony Gallopin (FRA) May 24, 1988 (aged 21)
 Kevyn Ista (FRA) November 22, 1984 (aged 25)
 Christophe Kern (FRA) January 18, 1981 (aged 28)
Rider Date of birth
 Jens Keukeleire (BEL) November 23, 1988 (aged 21)
 Kalle Kriit (EST) November 13, 1983 (aged 26)
 Arnaud Labbe (FRA) November 3, 1976 (aged 33)
 Sébastien Minard (FRA) June 12, 1982 (aged 27)
 Amael Moinard (FRA) February 2, 1982 (aged 27)
 David Moncoutié (FRA) April 30, 1975 (aged 34)
 Damien Monier (FRA) August 27, 1982 (aged 27)
 Rémi Pauriol (FRA) April 4, 1982 (aged 27)
 Nico Sijmens (BEL) April 1, 1978 (aged 31)
 Rein Taaramäe (EST) April 24, 1987 (aged 22)
 Tristan Valentin (FRA) February 23, 1982 (aged 27)
 Romain Zingle (BEL) January 29, 1987 (aged 22)

Riders who joined the team for the 2010 season
Rider 2009 team
Rémi CusinAgritubel
Julien Fouchardneo-pro
Tony GallopinAuber 93
Kevyn IstaAgritubel
Jens KeukeleireSoenens-Yawadoo-Germond
Kalle Kriitex-pro (Mitsubishi-Jartazi, 2008)
Arnaud LabbeBbox Bouygues Telecom
Romain ZingleVerandas Willems
Riders who left the team during or after the 2009 season
Rider 2010 team
Alexandre BlainEndura Racing
Florent BrardRetired
Hervé Duclos-LassalleNo contract
Bingen FernándezRetired
Maryan HaryNo contract
Sébastien PortalNo contract
Alexandre UsovISD feeder team
Romain VillaNo contract

One-day races

Spring classics

The team was successful on the traditional opening weekend of the spring season. At the Gran Premio dell'Insubria-Lugano in Switzerland, Dumoulin was the strongest sprinter in the 11-man leading group that approached the finish line together, and easily took the win.[1] Keukeleire provided a similar win in Belgium at Le Samyn later in the week, winning a 25-man sprint.[2]

Stage races

Cofidis' season began in Africa, in the nation of Gabon, with La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. Dumoulin quickly gave the team its first victory of the year, winning the sprint finish to the event's first stage.[3] The following month, at the Étoile de Bessèges, Dumoulin again took a sprint stage win, in that event's third stage.[4] The next day, Dumoulin crossed the line first in another mass finish, but he was relegated by the race jury to the last position in the peloton, 74th, for illegal maneuvering. The penalty cost him not only a stage win but also, as he lost out on time bonuses that went with the stage win, the race's overall leadership.[5] The race concluded the next day. Due to a contagious stomach bug spreading through the peloton that kept more than a quarter of the riders in the race from finishing it, Dumoulin ended up winning the race's general classification after all, as previous race leader Arnaud Molmy was among those who went out sick.[6] New team member Keukeleire was impressive in early March, winning the opening stage and the general classification of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen.[7][8]

Grand Tours

Giro d'Italia

Cofidis was one of 22 teams in the Giro, taking their guaranteed place in the race after they had declined it in 2009.[9] Moncoutié and Duque were named as co-squad leaders, with aims for stage wins in the mountains and the flats respectively. It was Moncoutié's first career Giro, and Duque's second. The squad was not competitive in the stages in the Netherlands which began the Giro. They did not have any riders contesting the sprint finishes to the Giro's first two road race stages, and before the first rest day and the transfer to Italy their higehst-placed rider in the overall classification was Duque in 75th, over eight and a half minutes behind the race leader. Moncoutié was seventh from last, already 16 minutes down in the standings due to being caught up in the repeated crashes that marred the first two days of mass-start racing.[10] The squad's fortunes changed little upon the arrival in Italy, as they were 20th in the stage 4 team time trial, better than only Acqua & Sapone and Ag2r-La Mondiale at two and a half minutes off the winning time.[11]

In stage 5, Fouchard followed a morning move from Bbox Bouygues Telecom's Yukiya Arashiro to join a breakaway group. Fouchard, Arashiro, and eventual stage winner Jérôme Pineau were nearly caught by the sprinters' teams driving the peloton in the final kilometer, but they stayed away by a margin of four seconds. They were credited by Team HTC-Columbia sporting director Valerio Piva, whose team was arguably the most upset by the lost mass sprint opportunity, for their combative riding.[12] The squad was then quiet until stage 10, when the Garmin-Transitions leadout train, and in particular Julian Dean, rode so effectively that a group of only nine riders contested the sprint for the stage win three seconds ahead of the peloton. Duque made this selection, but was last in the sprint for victory behind Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar.[13]

The squad had better chances for victories in breakaways during the second half of the Giro. A large morning breakaway finished mostly intact in stage 13. Kriit was part of this group, and was fifth in the sprint finish.[14] In stage 17, the squad took their only victory of the Giro with Monier, from a breakaway. He had ridden the first part of the stage-concluding climb to Pejo Terme with Danilo Hondo and Steven Kruijswijk before soloing to his first professional victory half a minute ahead of them.[15] The team did not contend for any overall awards; Duque was the squad's highest-placed rider in the final overall standings in 63rd, and the squad was 20th in both the Trofeo Fast Team and Trofeo Super Team standings.[16]

Tour de France

Cofidis was extremely unsuccessful in the Tour de France, finishing in the top ten of a stage just once, when Pauriol finished 22 seconds ahead of the main field for eighth in stage 10.[17] El Farès was the team's top rider in the general classification at the end of the race, more than 53 minutes behind Tour champion Alberto Contador in 27th place. The squad was 13th in the teams classification.[18]

Vuelta a España

A man of about thirty wearing a mostly red cycling jersey with white trim standing with his hands behind his back.
David Moncoutié came to the Vuelta hoping to win the mountains classification for the third consecutive year, and did so.

Cofidis came to the Vuelta with a squad led by Moncoutié, two-time defending mountains classification winner who was back to try for a third straight win in the classification. The squad was 15th in the team time trial which kicked off the race, finishing with eight riders 28 seconds off the winning time put up by Team HTC-Columbia.[19] The squad did not come close to figuring into any stage finishes until stage 6, when Dumoulin was ninth in a depleted field sprint.[20] Two days later, Moncoutié began his pursuit of the mountains title in earnest. He made the morning breakaway on a hilly stage with five categorized climbs, including a steep summit finish at Xorret del Catí. While mountains leader Serafín Martínez also made the escape and actually outscored Moncoutié on the day 23–20, Moncoutié won the stage and positioned himself second in the mountains standings. It was his third Vuelta stage win in as many consecutive participations.[21] He made the breakaway the next day as well, and scored on all seven climbs, moving past Martínez to claim the blue polka-dotted jersey awarded to the mountains leader. He was fourth on the stage, opting not to chase David López as the Spaniard rode an aggressive descent of the Alto de Revolcat to the finish.[22]

Stage 11 ended with a climb to Vallnord in Andorra, and though Moncoutié rode the climb near the front of the race with the Vuelta's elite riders, he did not score any points on it, finishing eighth on the day.[23] Moncoutié next scored mountains points on the Alto de Cotobello at the end of stage 14. Moncoutié took fourth place on the stage and widened his gap over Martínez, who had not scored since he lost the jersey.[24] The next day, Sijmens took second place at Lagos de Covadonga in an extremely climbing-intensive stage. He had been part of the morning breakaway group, but lost contact with stage winner Carlos Barredo during the Covadonga climb.[25] Moncoutié was briefly part of the breakaway in stage 17, taking top points on the third-category Alto de la Cabruñana climb near the beginning of the stage. After he gained those points, he rejoined the peloton, finishing the stage 12th. Martínez marked this move and scored in the classification for the first time since losing the blue and white jersey, coming just behind Moncoutié on the Cabruñana climb. [26] They both scored on the second-category Puerto de Chía climb in stage 19, Martínez with five points to Moncoutié's three, but Moncoutié still led the classification by eight points with just one stage left (since stage 21 had no climbs).[27] Both failed to score in the race's queen stage the next day, with the first three mountains being claimed by breakaway riders and the Bola del Mundo climb at the finish by the race's elite.[28] This meant that Moncoutié needed only to finish the race the next day in Madrid to win the classification, and he did. He was also the squad's highest-placed rider in the final overall standings, finishing 14th at a deficit of 14 minutes and 34 seconds to Vuelta champion Vincenzo Nibali. The squad finished 15th in the teams classification.[29]

Season victories

Date Race Competition Rider Country Location
January 19 La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Stage 1 UCI Africa Tour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)  Gabon Akiéni
February 5 Étoile de Bessèges, Stage 3 UCI Europe Tour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)  France Ceze-Languedoc
February 7 Étoile de Bessèges, Overall UCI Europe Tour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)  France
February 13 Tour Méditerranéen, Stage 4 UCI Europe Tour  El Fares, JulienJulien El Fares (FRA)  France St. Paul en Forêt
February 27 Gran Premio dell'Insubria-Lugano UCI Europe Tour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)   Switzerland Lugano
March 3 Le Samyn UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium Dour
March 5 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Stage 1 UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium Bellegem
March 7 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Overall UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium
March 7 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Points classification UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium
March 7 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Youth classification UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium
March 14 Paris–Nice, Stage 7 UCI World Ranking  Moinard, AmaëlAmaël Moinard (FRA)  France Nice
March 14 Paris–Nice, Mountains classification UCI World Ranking  Moinard, AmaëlAmaël Moinard (FRA)  France
March 17 Nokere–Koerse UCI Europe Tour  Keukeleire, JensJens Keukeleire (BEL)  Belgium
March 21 Cholet-Pays de Loire UCI Europe Tour  Duque, LeonardoLeonardo Duque (COL)  France Pays de Loire
March 27 Volta a Catalunya, Stage 6 UCI ProTour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)  Spain Barcelona
April 8 Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, Stage 3 UCI Europe Tour  Dumoulin, SamuelSamuel Dumoulin (FRA)  France Pre-En-Pail
April 13 Paris–Camembert UCI Europe Tour  Minard, SébastienSébastien Minard (FRA)  France Camembert
April 18 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Mountains classification UCI Europe Tour  Pauriol, RémiRémi Pauriol (FRA)  Turkey
April 18 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Sprint classification UCI Europe Tour  Kern, ChristopheChristophe Kern (FRA)  Turkey
May 26 Giro d'Italia, Stage 17 UCI World Ranking  Monier, DamienDamien Monier (FRA)  Italy Pejo Terme
June 5 Tour de Luxembourg, Stage 3 UCI Europe Tour  Gallopin, TonyTony Gallopin (FRA)  Luxembourg Diekirch
June 19 Route du Sud, Stage 2B UCI Europe Tour  Moncoutié, DavidDavid Moncoutié (FRA)  France Peyragudes
June 20 Route du Sud, Overall UCI Europe Tour  Moncoutié, DavidDavid Moncoutié (FRA)  France
August 4 Paris–Corrèze, Stage 1 UCI Europe Tour  Buffaz, MickaëlMickaël Buffaz (FRA)  France St Léonard de Noblat
August 5 Paris–Corrèze, Overall UCI Europe Tour  Buffaz, MickaëlMickaël Buffaz (FRA)  France
September 4 Vuelta a España, Stage 8 UCI World Ranking  Moncoutié, DavidDavid Moncoutié (FRA)  Spain Xorret del Catí
September 19 Vuelta a España, Mountains classification UCI World Ranking  Moncoutié, DavidDavid Moncoutié (FRA)  Spain

References

  1. ↑ Cycling News (2010-02-27). "Dumoulin wins Insubria". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  2. ↑ Cycling News (2010-03-03). "Keukeleire crowned king of Le Samyn". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  3. ↑ Cycling News (2010-01-19). "Dumoulin claims Tropicale opener". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  4. ↑ Cycling News (2010-02-05). "Dumoulin dashes to stage win". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  5. ↑ Cycling News (2010-02-06). "Molmy wins stage after Dumoulin relegated". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  6. ↑ Cycling News (2010-02-07). "Eeckhout takes final stage in France". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  7. ↑ Cycling News (2010-03-05). "Keukeleire wins Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen opener". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 2 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  8. ↑ Cycling News (2010-03-07). "Boeckmans bests peloton in Ichtegem". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 9 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  9. ↑ "Barloworld left off first Giro d'Italia team list". Cycling Weekly. 2009-01-28. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
  10. ↑ Les Clarke (2010-05-10). "Weylandt takes chaotic stage". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 11 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-11.
  11. ↑ Les Clarke and Stephen Farrand (2010-05-12). "Liquigas-Doimo fly to TTT victory". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  12. ↑ Jean-François Quénet (2010-05-14). "HTC-Columbia director credits Giro break". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  13. ↑ Les Clarke and Jean-François Quénet (2010-05-18). "Farrar fantastic in Bitonto". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 20 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  14. ↑ Cycling News (2010-06-11). "Belletti sprints to hometown win in Cesenatico". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 23 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  15. ↑ Les Clarke (2010-05-26). "Monier finally gets first pro win in Pejo Terme". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  16. ↑ Stephen Farrand (2010-05-30). "Basso wins Giro d'Italia". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 23 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
  17. ↑ Les Clarke (2010-07-14). "Paulinho gives Radioshack something to celebrate". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  18. ↑ Anthony Tan (2010-07-25). "Tres victorias de Francia para Contador!". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  19. ↑ Cycling News (2010-08-28). "Cavendish claims first leader's jersey". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  20. ↑ Peter Hymas (2010-09-02). "Hushovd smashes sprint in Murcia". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  21. ↑ Barry Ryan (2010-09-04). "Moncoutie takes solo victory". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  22. ↑ Barry Ryan (2010-09-05). "Lopez bests break in Alcoy". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  23. ↑ Peter Hymas (2010-09-08). "Anton comes up aces in Andorra". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  24. ↑ Barry Ryan (2010-09-11). "Rodriguez climbs to stage win". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  25. ↑ Barry Ryan (2010-09-12). "Barredo climbs to stage victory". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  26. ↑ Stephen Farrand (2010-09-13). "Nieve solos to first Grand Tour stage win". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  27. ↑ Barry Ryan (2010-09-17). "Gilbert triumphs in Toledo". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  28. ↑ Stephen Farrand (2010-09-18). "Nibali withstands Mosquera's attacks". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  29. ↑ Stephen Farrand (2010-09-19). "Nibali seals Vuelta a España win". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2011-01-17.