News shorts: Pinot grabs fourth win of 2015

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Thibaut Pinot is leading FDJ's GC ambitions

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) has a fourth victory in 2015 after beating Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) in a two-man sprint at the Tour du Gévaudan Languedoc-Roussillon on stage 1 of the 2.1 race. Pinot and Voeckler went clear from a select group in the final kilometres of the Col de la Pierre Plate where the FDJ rider pipped his compatriot on the line after good work by Arnold Jeanneson and Kenny Elissonde on the 7.5% average climb.

"We rode to control the breakaway," Pinot told Directvelo. "The legs were pretty good, so we upped the pace a bit on the second climb. Arnold and Kenny did a big job. Each rider has fulfilled his role. When Romain Bardet attacked on the climb, I did not go because I wanted to stay with Kenny. I told him to continue at a good pace. We were riding very fast. We knew it was going to be complicated to get away."

"Of course we must achieve short term results but the commitment of three years from Fortuneo Vital Concept [as team sponsor] allows us to have a medium-term vision," Hubert added. "These two partners have also indicated their ambitions on the Belgian market so we must be more present in Belgium, and recruiting Boris also goes in this direction. Like Bonnamour and McLay, Boris has a taste for the classics. With these three riders, we have potential for one-day races in Belgium

There is just one race left in the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, the elite men's road race which is proving to be one of the most open events in Richmond. The 259.9km course looks to suit the classics men with names such as Peter Sagan (Slovakia), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Zdeněk Štybar (Czech Republic), John Degenkolb (Germany), Michael Matthews (Australia) and the Belgian trio of Tom Boonen, Philippe Gilbert and Greg Van Avermaet.

With rain expected to hit the peloton in the early afternoon, the weather is sure to play a role in deciding the rainbow jersey just as much as the Libby Hill and 23rd Street climbs. In the pre-race podcast, Cyclingnews editor in chief Daniel Benson sits down with the North American crew of Laura Weislo, Kirsten Frattini and Pat Malach to discuss how they see the race playing out and made their podium predictions.

Every rider dreams of wearing the rainbow jersey for a season and many of the sport's biggest names are out to make that a reality today in Richmond, Virginia. 2014 world champion Michal Kwiatkowski leads the Poland team and is aiming to become the first rider since Paolo Bettini to win consecutive titles in 2007 but with no clear pre-race favourites, Cyclingnews has put together a video of the top ten riders to watch.