Dumoulin wins La Drôme Classic

Samuel Dumoulin ensured that Ag2r-La Mondiale's 100% record at La Drôme Classic continued as he soloed to victory having launched a race winning attack on the final climb of the day after teammate Romain Bardet had cut down the advantage of a dangerous five-rider front group. Dumoulin's winning margin was four seconds ahead of Trek's Fabio Felline and seven seconds ahead of last year's runner up Sébastien Delfosse (Wallonie–Bruxelles).

Dumoulin's last victory was in May 2013 at the Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan and it was his best result since finishing runner up at the 2014 Paris-Camembert in April.

"This morning, Jean-Christophe Péraud told me I was the best chance for the team," Dumoulin said. "Honestly, I didn't believe him. The team did a great job. In the last kilometre, after the long climb, I began to believe I can do it. In the last climb, Romain did everything to help me. I love this kind of situation, to be under pressure to finish the job."

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With his characteristics better suited to a bunch sprint finish, Dumoulin added that he was surprised by the nature of the victory but glad to have broken his drought.

"I don't win often lone victories in my career," Dumoulin said. "I haven't won since two years and sometimes, it was difficult to live. I worked hard this winter. Last week, I wasn't at the top in Tour du Haut Var but I didn't lose confidence."

Taking place in the Ardèche, the hilly La Drôme Classic parcours looked like delivering another hard race for the peloton which was characterised by numerous attacks in the final 20km of the 201km race. With the day's breakaway caught in sight of the third last climb of the day, Austrian national champion Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) launched an attack that was matched by teammate Bauke Mollema, Peter Stetina (BMC) and Bardet. The three chasers caught but were themselves swallowed up by a 30-strong chasing group on the penultimate climb.

Mollema and Stetina managed to clear once again on the climb with Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Fabio Felline (Trek) and Yann Guyot (Equipe Cycliste Armée de Terre) for company. Behind the leaders, a chase group of Dumoulin, Bardet, Delfosse, Bagot, Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Ivan Santaromita (Orica-GreenEdge) and Jonathan Hivert (Bretagne - Séché Environnement) were chasing hard, cutting the gap to seven seconds at the base of the final climb with three kilometres to go.

Bardet buried himself to make the catch, a selfless effort to increase his teammate's chances for victory, with Dumoulin then counter attacking as the front group crested the climb to get clear. He held off his rivals on the quick descent into Livron to claim Ag2r-La Mondiale's third win of 2015.

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