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 1^st^ to 7^th^)
Riders who made a top-10 at EC and will be present again: Seixas🇫🇷, Scaroni🇮🇹, Skjelmose🇩🇰, Sivakov, Grégoire🇫🇷 (from 3^rd^ to 10^th^).
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 2^nd^ to 8^th^)
The long awaited Prophecy is finally coming true! He is THE ONE!
Seixas🇫🇷 chose the Pogatchar option and pogatchared the race.
The peloton delayed the race until that last climb of St-Romain de Lerps. With 95 km, there were already trains at the front of the peloton, but in fact they were riding like they sometime do on Belgian races: pushing on the flat before a climb, and then climbing very slowly. So everyone's goal was to neutralise the race.
In the breakaway, there were a lot of misunderstanding and disagreements between the riders, perhaps even more with the two Total riders.
When Décathlon's last teammate stopped after a mile or so in the climb (45 km from the line), I thought Seixas🇫🇷 was going to be in trouble for the rest of the race, as there were teams like Visma with a strong presence. But the young Frenchman simply took the lead of the peloton and pressed the pedals. And little by little, riders dropped like flies at the back, and then there was no back, just 10 riders, and then 4, and then there was only Jorgenson🇺🇸 with him, and then, as L. Martinez🇫🇷 and the UAE loony🇨🇭 were closing the gap, Seixas🇫🇷 accelerated again and dropped the American. There were 40 km to go solo at that time.
But winds were favourable, terrain was favourable to the EC bronze medallist, and gaps between groups only increased.
Last animation on the race was Mariault🇫🇷 and Pacher🇫🇷 insulting each other during the sprint for 10^th^ place 😆
Yes, Pacher🇫🇷 was the first FDJ, Grégoire🇫🇷 having disappeared after blowing up while trying to stay with the last group of 6? 8? riders when Seixas climbed St-Romain de Lerps.
This is in fact exactly what happened, he climbed St-Romain de Lerps at the exact same speed as Pogatchar did at the European Championship last Autumn to drop everyone including Evenepoel:
They say on TV that after the top of St-Romain, he also did the fastest downhill ever made... 😲
In fact, that's where the meat of his 1-minute advantage came from: he gained a little bit more on the descent than on the climb.
He's crazy strong. I really truly hope for French cycling that he's the next GT-winner - maybe even the TdF!