March 25/00 5:27 am - Fraser Wins at Criterium International, Tour of Normandy Stage 5

Posted by Editoress on 03/25/00
 

Gord Fraser Wins Stage 1 at Criterium International

Mercury's Gord Fraser won today's stage of the Criterium International. A 3 man breakaway took off on the day's first climb and gained a maximum gap of 9 minutes. The chase was started by Credit Agricole. A large crash on a descent left 4 riders out of the race including race favorite Bobby Julich.

The gap continued to come down and with 20k to go, the Mercury Green Machine came to the front to get things set for Fraser.

A lot of media were skeptical of Mercury's chance to do anything in this race, but the Mercury Boy's were ready to prove everyone that racing in America is going strong and their results this year are not a fluke.

When Fraser hit the line it was win #28 for Mercury for the year.


Stage 1 Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Jurançon (France) 192 km
1. Gordon Fraser (Can) Mercury 4:36:15
2. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole
3. Gian Matteo Fagnini (Ita) Telekom
4. Jan Bratkowski (Ger) Mercury
5. Laurent Brochard (Fra) Delatour
6. Jeremy Hunt (GBR) BigMat
7. Stéphane Barthe (Fra) Ag2r
8. Abraham Olano (Esp) ONCE
9. Bruno Boscardin (Sui) Post Swiss
10. Henk Vogels (Aus) Mercury
11. François Simon (Fra) Bonjour
12. Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole
13. Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Gerolsteiner
14. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom
15. Andy Flickinger (Fra) Festina
16. Angel Vicioso (Esp) Kelme
17. Mathias Buxhofer (Aut) Phonak
18. Andrei Kivilev (Kaz) Ag2r
19. Aitor Osa (Esp) Banesto
20. Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto all s.t.

GC
1. Gordon Fraser (Can) Mercury 4.36:05.
2. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole at 0:01.
3. Glenn D'Hollander (Bel) Lotto 0:04.
4. Gian Matteo Fagnini (Ita) Telekom 0:06.
5. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) FdJ 0:07.
6. Gilles Bouvard (Fra) Delatour 0:08.
7. Rolf Huser (Sui) Festina 0:09.
8. Jan Bratkowski (Ger) Mercury 0:10.
9. Laurent Brochard (Fra) Delatour
10. Jeremy Hunt (GBR) Big Mat

12. Abraham Olano (Esp) ONCE all s.t.

Tour de Normandie

Stage 5: Saint-Hilaire du Harcou235;t to Condé sur Noireau 168 km

1. Laszlo Bodrogi (Ung) Mapei 3:57:29
2. Morten Sonne (Dan) Fakta
3. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) both s.t.
4. Cyrille Prisé (Fra) 0:46
5. Ludovic Vahée (Fra) 4:41

GC

1. Ludovic Auger (Fra) Bigmat Auber 21.48:49
2. Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat 0:08
3. Danny Jonasson (Dan) Fakta 0:10
4. Anthony Morin (Fra) Credit Agricole 0:11
5. Linas Balciunas (Lit) St.Quentin 0:18