April 5, 2004 – The 26th edition of the G.P. de la Ville de Rennes was held earlier today on the windswept coastal plains of northwestern France, where Navigators' Kirk O'Bee scored another podium for the men-in-blue.  Another of the France Cup series, the event was well attended by the French teams and riders.  Known primarily as a 'sprinters' race, the main obstacles of the day, in addition to the 193Km distance, would be the wind and a series of short, steep hills with the steepest coming in short succession just after the 160Km mark as the course entered the 6.6Km finishing circuits.

The early drama of the day came in the form of an attack by Nicolas Inaudi (Ag2r) and Christophe Le Mevel (Credit Agricole) shortly after the peloton exited the city of Rennes. By the time the duo reached Km-23, they had a one minute lead on the main pack. The disinterested peloton gave very little effort and their lead stretched upward as the kilometers click by, beneath their wheels.  It wasn't until the two leaders reached a time gap of nearly 13-minutes by Km-70, that anyone took notice.

Their lead was slowly eroded over the next 100Km but not due to an organized chase, but rather to the lumbering peloton waking up and smelling the coffee. Hitting the final 2 hills before the 5 finishing circuits, the pace quickened dramatically, but the gap to now a single leader was still over 1:20. On the downtown circuits it took a full 2 laps to finally reel in the lone challenger as the teams began to set up for a field sprint.  With many corners, roundabouts and short, fast stretches, the lead changed frequently and every team seemed to want to take control of the front.  The strongest squads were taking their shots and lining up for their sprinters. Coming down the long home stretch for the final time in a curb-to-curb sprint, it was Domina Vacanze's Francesco Secchiari taking the win over Saulius Ruskys (Oktos) and Navigators' O'Bee. For Kirk, it was his second podium in this event in 2 tries, with his last one a victory in 2002. For the Navigators squad, it was an attempt at 3-in-a-row as Oleg Grichkine took the win for the team in 2003.

The Navigators team now heads back to Belgium for the mid-week Classic this Wednesday: Gent-Wevelgem.  The squad will be looking to improve on Henk Vogels' second place photo finish of 2003.