April 6, 2005 – Canadian Mike Barry (Discovery) is having a tremendous race at the Circuit de la Sarthe in northern France. After finishing safely in the pack of bunch sprints in the first two stages (won by Anthony Ravard of Bouygues Télécom and Andy Flickinger of AG2R, respectively), Barry turned up the heat in the stage 2b 8.8km individual time trial, finishing 12th, 20 seconds off the pace set by Agritubel’s Florent Brard.

The result has Barry tied for 11th in the GC, 18 seconds down on race leader Sylvain Chavanel of Cofidis. A tremendous showing for the Canadian, whose sights are more clearly focused on the Tour de Georgia and the Giro.

53rd Circuit de la Sarthe
Stage 2b – April 6: Angers – Angers ITT, 8.8 km
1. Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel 10.33
2. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis 0.02
3. Markus Fohten (Ger) Gerolsteiner                              0.07
4. Alberto Martinez (Spa) Agritubel                                0.10
5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Discovery Channel  0.12
6. Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr) Discovery Channel 0.13
7. Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.14
8. Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) AG2R Prévoyance 0.15
9. Eddy Seigneur (Fra) RAGT Semences – MG Rover 0.16
10. Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Discovery Channel                           
11. Laurent Brochard (Fra) Bouygues Télécom 0.17
12. Michael Barry (Can) Discovery Channel 0.20
13. Jan Ullrich (Ger) T- Mobile Team 0.21
14. Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.22
15. Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) AG2R Prévoyance 0.27

GC after stage 2b
1. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis 6.55.33
2. Markus Fohten (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.05
3. Alberto Martinez (Spa) Agritubel 0.08
4. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Discovery Channel 0.10
5. Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr) Discovery Channel 0.11
6. Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.12
7. Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) AG2R Prévoyance 0.13
8. Eddy Seigneur (Fra) RAGT Semences – MG Rover 0.14
9. Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Discovery Channel                            
10. Laurent Brochard (Fra) Bouygues Télécom 0.15
11. Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel 0.18
12. Michael Barry (Can) Discovery Channel                            
13. Jan Ullrich (Ger) T- Mobile Team 0.19
14. Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.20
15 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) AG2R Prévoyance 0.24