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Nazon streak stays alive at Criterium International
The Cours Aristide Briand in Charleville-Mezières is not as long or as wide as the Champs-Élysées in Paris, but French sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon likes them both. He was won the most important sprints of his career on the two avenues, and he continued that run on Saturday in the opening stage of the two-day Critérium International.
Last July, on a sultry summer’s day, Nazon took the final stage of the Tour de France thanks more to his bustling style than his erratic finishing speed. That gave this 6-foot, 163-pound rider a half-length verdict over his inherently faster Aussie rivals Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen.
Eight months after the Tour climax, on a sunny, but frigid Saturday afternoon in Charleville, Nazon again used his physical strength to bludgeon out a big win. This time, the challenge of an under-the-weather Cooke faded with 50 meters to go and Fdjeux.com’s Aussie star crossed the line in sixth. As for McEwen, the Lotto-Domo sprinter was absent, having not yet recovered from the sickness that forced him out of Paris-Nice earlier this month.
It was the third year ruining that a Nazon has won at Charleville. Last year, it was La Boulangère’s Damien Nazon, Jean-Patrick’s older brother, who easily beat German Patrik Sinkewitz of Quick Step. And in 2002, Jean-Patrick, then with La Française des Jeux, made his breakthrough at this level in defeating Italian speedster Angelo Furlan. This Saturday, Nazon was a clear winner over two Gerolsteiner men: Markus Zberg of Switzerland and Peter Wrolich of Austria.
In his days at La Française des Jeux (now Fdjeux.com), Nazon was said to be a difficult man to manage, so he was let go at the end of 2002 by team boss Marc Madiot. And it was only at a much-reduced salary that Nazon was picked up a year ago by the minor French team, Jean Delatour. That squad mutated this year into the even weaker RAGT-Rover outfit, which didn’t have enough euros to keep Nazon after his Tour success. So now he is at AG2R, his third team in three years.
AG2R is happy to have him because, at 27, Nazon is at the right point in his life to take over the sprinting mantle from the French team’s aging Estonian rider Jaan Kirsipuu.
Nazon, of course, won’t keep his yellow leader’s jersey at this Critérium International, which closes Sunday with an intense morning stage of nine climbs in less than 100km followed by an individual time trial of 8.3km.
Last year, the climbing stage was the one that determined the overall victory for French veteran Laurent Brochard of AG2R. And in 2002 it came down to the time trial, which saw Spaniard Alberto Martinez of Euskaltel take a one-second overall win from Lance Armstrong.
Being aware of how close the verdict can be in this race, Armstrong tried to get a little insurance on Saturday. Heading into the day’s third intermediate sprint at Novion-Porcien, the U.S. Postal leader shot out of the peloton in an attempt to snaffle a two-second bonus, six minutes behind the stage’s marathon solo breakaway, Guillaume Auger of the winless RAGT team. Armstrong was chased by a sharp Alex Vinokourov of T-Mobile, who took the two seconds, leaving the American with just one.
That single second might make all the difference come Sunday afternoon.
