Two lovely races this week:
This week we see the first races of some of the major players in the spring campaigns and the season overall.
Mads Pedersen, Joao Almeida, Biniam Girmay, and Giulio Pellizari will ride their first race against Evenepoel and the cat-killer Tiberi in and around Valencia.
And in the Bességes we will see French star Paul Lapeira battle it out with an assortment of other strong-but-not-quite-star rider such as Kubiš, Delettre, Costiou, Teuns and an apparently reanimated Groenewegen.
Enjoy!
Yep, those are the first stage races in Europe, if I am not mistaken.
And in the Bességes we will see French star Paul Lapeira battle it out with an assortment of other strong-but-not-quite-star rider such as Kubiš, Delettre, Costiou, Teuns and an apparently reanimated Groenewegen.
Not many World Teams this year on Bessèges, as those who withdrew last year were not invited again.
So, no Pedersen no animate stages. But the good old Arashiro🇯🇵 (20 years of career) will be there. He’s only taken part in this race once, 14 years ago.
Nevertheless, the lack of a good start list didn’t prevent a nice, eventful race on Sunday in Marseille. Let’s hope it is the same this week. The fact that basically no points are given on stages except for the winner may preclude all small teams to ride all day long for a 10th place in a bunch sprint. We shall see.
There aren’t many climbs on this race, especially on years when the Mont Bouquet is not climbed. There should be a bit of wind and rain on the 1st stage tomorrow (Bellegarde, not Bellegrade as PCS wrote on its profile, this is not Yugoslavia 😆), and perhaps a bit on the 2nd stage too. I am not sure whether it will be enough to create echelons. Perhaps enough to make everyone nervous and cause crashes?
Not many World Teams this year on Bessèges, as those who withdrew last year were not invited again.
So, no Pedersen to animate stages.
Trek went to Valencia instead of the dangerous Bességes and now Pedersen is out for a while… 😞
Yes broken wrist and broken collarbone. Could be his spring gone.
Bessèges, stage 4
We couldn’t see it on the profiles, but the final circuit and the road to the line were very nice! Nothing hard in the circuit, but a nice collection of smallish roads and curves. Not as narrow as some Belgian roads, but a bit in the style of the Tour du Limousin.
When I switched the TV on, 50 km from the line, there was again a standard configuration with 3 little guys in a breakaway, and the peloton – how much was it? – perhaps 1mn30s behind.
My report
Unibet, having the GC jersey on Kubish, was ensuring a basic pace.
20 km from the line, was the first passage over this line. A small sunken road climbing from a village up to the country. Retailleau🇫🇷 and Davy🇫🇷 ( Nice, ex-FDJ) dropped the Polti rider🇮🇹 on the top, that they reached 45-50 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Alpecin had joined the head of the peloton and Unibet had pulled back.
Then it was more teams like FDJ leading it with Alpecin.
On the second passage, the breakaway had lost around 20 seconds.
The peloton formed several trains in parallel in places where the road was larger. Again FDJ was there.
Unibet was hiding behind and started coming forward again about 5-6 km from the line.
The breakaway was caught about 2 km from the line, after giving everything they had. 👍 again for breakaway men.
The bunch arrived at a crazy speed inside the village. No crash was however reported. Then there was a succession of acceleration/attacks in the final climb. Décathlon started the climb. Mifsud (🇫🇷🇲🇹) was seen leading, he finished 11th.
Then a Roubaix guy placed an attack. Either there was a switch between 2 Roubaix riders, or it was an extremely long attack that brought Heremans🇧🇪 to victory. Nobody manage to take him over, neither Kubish (🇸🇰 Unibet) who finished 3rd nor Lapeira (🇫🇷 Décathlon) who managed to come back for 2nd place, ultimately passing Kubish and Moschetti (🇮🇹 Q36.5). Early in the climb, Kubish had been slowed down a bit by a hit, when there was too many riders sprinting on the same line.
I spoke about a possible switch because Louis Hardouin (🇫🇷 Roubaix) finished there again in 5th place, so perhaps it was him who launched the Roubaix attack? What a debut in the professional world anyway for this guy!
Costiou (🇫🇷 FDJ) was nowhere to be seen, while Lapeira finally managed to grab a few seconds of time bonus.
EDIT
Kubish (🇸🇰 Unibet) was put back in 2nd place (therefore Lapeira in 3rd place). It looked so, but as the speeds were different and Lapeira was sneaking through a mouse hole on the right of the road, the original classification made sense as well. So, this is the 3rd time in 4 stages that he finishes 2nd 😀
Victor Papon (🇫🇷 Nice) will go home with the Mountain jersey: none of his followers was in today’s breakaway.
A few riders were behind a small split on the line: Teuns, Azparren, Decomble, among others, lost a few seconds.
Before the final TT tomorrow, Kubish is 16 seconds before Lapeira, Costiou is 4 seconds farther; Larsen and Decomble at 23 and 27 seconds from Kubish. I am just quoting those names, there are other riders in between.
Volta Comunitat Valenciana
last stage
It was a tight finish, the breakaway men with the peloton on their back, falling twice in the curves of the urban final part, particularly the 2 Ineos riders who re-established the Sky/Ineos tradition of getting wiped out by losing their front wheel grip.
Raul Garcia (🇪🇸 Movistar ex-Arkéa), climber-TT-man, managed to outsprint his remaining breakaway mates, as well as the peloton sprinters who came 5 yards behind.
