April 3, 2005 – Navigators Insurance’s Jeff Louder came close to spoiling the sprinters’ party today in the 27th running of the 193Km G.P. Ville de Renne. This Coupe de France (French Cup) event has been good to the Navigators squad in the past with Kirk O’Bee taking 1st in 2002 and Oleg Grishkine taking the top honors in 2003.

The race typically favors strong sprinters with the suds to get over the 15-odd climbs before hitting the 6.6Km finishing circuits through the streets of this picturesque city in western France. The 15 teams that took the start were still thinking of the long breakaway that succeeded a few days ago, just 40Km away in Vitre, and went out fast and hard. The initial hour of racing was covered at better than 46Km/hr as the racers traversed the small towns of the Bretagne Region. Although racing hard, it took until about 80Km of racing before a group of about 16 split themselves from the rest of the pack.

With the inevitable re-shuffling that occurs when racing through small villages and open fields, small groups of riders were able to bridge to the front group, while others succumbed to the speed and dropped back to the main pack. With 3 in the front group, the Navigators were represented by Jeff Louder, David O’Loughlin and Shawn Milne. However, as the speed and the hills took their toll, Milne came off the break, but was quickly replaced by Kirk O’Bee, who simultaneously bridged up from the main pack. The front group, now numbering about 30 strong, continued on the narrow, bumpy roads as the back group began thinking more about lunch, than racing.

With representatives from all of the teams, the front group raced back toward Rennes with the attacks and terrain causing several splits and re-groupings. Luck, both good and bad, is only fleeting in pro bicycle racing and Jeff Louder found himself in a pileup that split the lead group into 2 equal parts, with O’Bee and O’Loughlin in the rear. A quick-thinking O’Loughlin sacrificed himself to bring sprinter O’Bee across to the front group, but in the process gave himself an early trip to the showers. Back up and racing, Jeff showed his depth of strength and not only regained the chasing group, but was also able to ride himself back into the lead group to make it 2 Navigators in the front.

An inventory of the lead group showed 2 riders each from the Italian squads, while the French teams interestingly had only 1 representative. The 16 leaders sped back into town with a French-led chase keeping them honest, and on their toes. Once on the finishing circuits, the strongest began to attack each other in an effort to thin the herd in hope of eliminating the sprinters. The group alternately broke up and re-grouped until the final selection was made with just over 2-laps remaining.

Eight riders were now in front, but Navigators’ Kirk O’Bee wasn’t there. It was perennial strong-man Jeff Louder that was in the final selection. Hanging it all on the line, O’Bee made his move to bridge across the gap, but ended up in the dreaded “no-mans-land” between the groups. An attack by Agritubel’s Gilles Canouet looked too good to be true, and for the young rider it was. He mistakenly sprinted 1 lap too early, and joyfully threw his arms in the air. Realizing his mistake, he continued to charge ahead for almost the entire lap. As the sprint wound up behind him it appeared that he may have saved the day, but just couldn’t quite hold off the sprinters. In a show of power, it was only a throw of the bike and a photo finish that separated Jeff Louder from the top placings at the line. Settling for the 4th place spot, Jeff served notice that his strength and power now comes bundled with a sprint. Friday’s winner Daniele Contrini (LPR) was 2nd while local rider Sebastien Duret (Bretagne – Jean Floc’h) was 3rd.

1. Ludovic Turpin (Ag2r)
2. Daniele Contrini (LPR)
3. Sebastien Duret (Bretagne – Jean Floc’h)
4. Jeff Louder (Navigators Insurance)