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Another fourth place for Dominique Rollin

February 06, 2010 - Filed under: TestTeam

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Arnoud Molmy (Roubaix - Lille Metropole) won today's stage, with the start and finish in Alès. Yesterday's stage winner, Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), initially won this stage and took the leader's jersey but was disqualified afterward due to irregular sprinting. Dominique Rollin was the best-placed TestTeam rider again today, finishing fourth.

"Early in the stage, a group of 12 riders got away, and in this group we had Ted King", said sports director Alex Sans Vega. "They gained a maximum gap of 3 minutes and 50 seconds. Vacansoleil started to chase, and on the first categorized climb they set a fast tempo and dropped some riders, including leader Borut Bozic, who flatted, and some team mates stayed with him. At the same time, Cofidis took over the responsibility at the front, and their rider, yesterday's stage winner Samuel Dumoulin, was able to take the general classification lead from Bozic because the second-placed rider, Nico Eeckhout, had also been dropped already. Cofidis controlled the race in the last 20 kilometers, and we helped them a bit to prepare the sprint for Dominique. But there was chaos in the last roundabout before the finish, because half of the peloton took the wrong direction, including Dominique, and he ended up fourth".

"The finale was quite crazy," said Dominique Rollin "A few guys cut short the roundabout and created chaos in the run-in to the finish with about 400 meters to go. With bad signaling on the last corner, most of the riders took the shortest route, which messed up the finish. I had great legs and was well placed, but with all the confusion I ended up losing spots."

"I was quite happy with the teamwork today," said Sans Vega. "The young riders in particular showed themselves well, and the riders are getting better and better. The last stage tomorrow is on a circuit, and I would guess that it will finish in a sprint. A breakaway will be very difficult, but we will try to do something with Dominique again if he is feeling well."