Little by little, the season reaches its cruise speed, and this week-end adds 2 extra steps: the first Belgian classic, but also the first two .Pro races in France (all the previous ones were class .1).
The race take place on the sides of the Rhône river. On Saturday, on the West bank, that is Ardèche; and on Sunday on the East bank, that is Drôme.
Those are the same locations which were used for the European Championship last year and saw the victory of Pogatchar before (at a distance) Evenepoel and, way farther, Seixas.
The teams will be the same on the two one-day races:
Expected riders:
- Grégoire🇫🇷 and Costiou🇫🇷 for FDJ;
- Christen🇫🇷 and Sivakov for UAE;
- Jorgenson🇺🇸 for Visma;
- Skjelmose🇩🇰 for Lidl-Trek;
- Scaroni🇮🇹 for Astana;
- L. Martinez🇫🇷 for Bahrain;
- Seixas🇫🇷 and Riccitello🇺🇸 for Decathlon;
- Healy🇮🇪 for EF;
- Brenner🇩🇪 for Tudor.
Saturday’s race in Ardèche is usually for a climber or a climber-puncher. The mini-wall of Costebelle introduced during the European Championship will make an entry in this year classic course. I don’t know whether they kept the Magic Roundabout which gave Grégoire the victory on the classic last year 😆
Riders who made a top-10 last year and will be present again: Grégoire🇫🇷, Brenner🇩🇪, Champoussin🇫🇷, Scaroni🇮🇹, Skjelmose🇩🇰, Romo🇪🇸 (from 1st to 7th)
Riders who made a top-10 at EC and will be present again: Seixas🇫🇷, Scaroni🇮🇹, Skjelmose🇩🇰, Sivakov, Grégoire🇫🇷 (from 3rd to 10th).
While at the EC Pogatchar took off in the St-Romain de Lerps climb (IIRC), the rest of the classification was determined by accelerations in the successives ascensions of the Hell’s Vale or at its treacherous summit.
On Sunday we cross over the Rhône for race which is more for punchers and generally more open to varied profiles.
Riders who made a top-10 last year and will be present again: Skjelmose🇩🇰, Tullett🇬🇧, Hirschi🇨🇭, Bagioli🇮🇹, Godon🇫🇷, Champoussin🇫🇷, Q. Simmons🇺🇸 (from 2nd to 8th)
I don’t know what to think about tomorrow, after what we saw today.
I’d say the major fact today is an ode to tactical stupidity, especially in the last 20 km.
Step 1. Everyone in the front group basically hit the breaks when Jorgensen🇺🇸 (Visma) + Grégoire🇫🇷 (FDJ) attack… There was no FDJ in that group and 2 (?) Visma, the numerous rest should have chased at least a bit. They are given a second chance when Q. Simmons🇺🇸 (Lidl-Trek) and Cepeda (Movistar) come back from a group behind. What do the riders do then? Nothing, they all watch the new duo take them over without a single rider even jumping on their wheel…
Step 2. Cosnefroy🇫🇷 (UAE) attacks and isolate himself in one of the last walls. Of course alone he would never catch up the front duo. The main consequence is that UAE does not help the peloton chase. There lie the missing seconds in the end. 10 times the missing seconds. If they had not had Cosnefroy🇫🇷 ahead, they would have relayed, and the front duo would have been caught way before the final wall. We can had to this that without *Cosnefroy🇫🇷’s attack, the peloton would have been less disturbed by that climb, and the chase would have started a bit earlier in an orderly manner. The worst is that Cosnefroy🇫🇷 had good chances to win on the last wall, considering what he showed before.
Step 3. Only Décathlon made the big final push on the last 10 km. No one helped them, Q36.5 just showing up in the last mile, more for placement than helping. One may also reproach Décathlon for not helping the other teams before that… Unusually, there was zero wind; Jorgensen🇺🇸 is good at TT and Grégoire🇫🇷 at climbing small walls: what the heck were all teams other than Visma and FDJ waiting for? It is not like we haven’t been knowing for a few years that with the aerodynamics changes that occurred in the last 5 years or so, a large group doesn’t benefit so much as it used to benefit of the group effect versus a solo/duo.
Step 4. (more disputable). Jorgensen🇺🇸 kept on passing long relays to Grégoire🇫🇷 until the last 500 m, in spite of the fact that he didn’t stand a chance on this type of finish. Depending on whether one thinks that a place of 2nd is good, or that a team like Visma should only aim for victory, one may find that stupid or not. Still, it is strange that he attempted absolutely nothing to get rid of Grégoire🇫🇷 before the end, even if it meant restarting to relay in case it didn’t work.
L. Martinez🇫🇷 (Bahrain) showed his limits when he was following Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-Trek) in the Dane’s breakaway, yet he managed to recover enough after the breakaway was caught, so that he could win the peloton’s sprint!
Earlier, in the ‘mountain’ part of the race where Skjelmose🇩🇰 attacked, we also saw the sequence where Healy🇮🇪 (EF) was the only man leading the chase, and no one from any team would could come and help him. Behind him were seating 2 Visma and 1 Lidl-Trek, both teams having a man in Skjelmose🇩🇰’s trio; the teams which had interest in catching that breakaway were staying behind.