Team Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov won the 28th Chrono des Herbiers – Chrono des Nations in France. Vinokourov finished in Les Herbiers 1:07 ahead of French time trial champion Jean-Christophe Péraud (Creusot Cyclisme). Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2R) finished third and Belgian TT Champion Maxime Montfort (Team Columbia-HTC) was fourth.
This is Alexandre Vinokourov’s second win after returning from a two-year doping ban and his first in Astana colors. Earlier this season he won the time trial in the Tour de l’Ain where he started for a Kazakh national team.
“When I passed Philippe Gilbert, who started two minutes earlier than me, I knew that I would have a superb finish time,” explained Vinokourov.
“I really wanted to end the season with a victory for Astana to show my gratitude to the sponsors of the team who made my comeback possible. I was in the front in the Tour of Emilia, in the GP Beghelli and in yesterday’s Tour of Lombardy. I knew I would be good today.
“Now I have the shape to start in a Grand Tour. Unfortunately the season is over so I will take some holiday. On Tuesday I will leave for Kazakhstan to visit my family and to talk with some sponsors. I can start thinking about next season.”
Results for Chrono des Nations, Les Herbiers, 48.5 K:
1 Alexandr Vinokourov (Astana) 1:00:09, average speed 47.9 K/h
2 Jean-Christophe Péraud 1:07
3 Yuriy Krivtsov 1:12
4 Maxime Monfort 1:42
5 Florian Morizot 2:13
6 David Le Lay 2:23
7 Philippe Gilbert 2:34
8 Andriy Grivko 3:01
9 Julien Fouchard 3:12
10 Thomas Voeckler 3:14