Johan Le Bon was unable to get to Laval with the leader's jersey on his shoulders after he had won the prologue in the Boucles de la Mayenne. The Frenchman learned that it was hard to control a race when teams are composed of only six riders but FDJ had good reasons to be sarisfied.

"As expected, everything was decided in Saturday's stage," said manager Marc Madiot. "There was a breakaway of twelve riders but we couldn't bring them back. Yoann Offredo who resumed racing after breaking his foot, had not recovered from his efforts of the previous day. Lorrenzo Manzin was ill. We received help from the Topsport Vlaanderen team but we could not catch Turgis (Cofidis) who won and took the leader's jersey."

Yesterday Madiot and his riders were determined to reverse the trend and they almost succeeded. After several breakaway attempts from Olivier Le Gac and Johan Le Bon, Anthony Geslin joined a group of attackers after a failed first attempt.

"The move was really promising," said Madiot. "But Cofidis found help. Early in the race, they were on their own but that's cycling. When teams join forces, it is more difficult. Anthony was caught in the finale and Lorrenzo Manzin took fifth place in the stage but he had so much trouble. He was forced to change his bike due to a mechanical. Then he had another problem which forced him to make another bake change. It took ten kilometers to get back to the peloton and he paid for that effort.

"In the end, everything is not negative. Johan won and it was very important for him and the youngsters are excellent riders."