Route d'Occitanie: Coquard wins stage 1

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Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) took his first win since last August’s Arctic Race of Norway, judging his finishing burst to perfection to edge out Elia Viviani by half a wheel and deny the Italian a first success for Cofidis. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain McLaren) was third at the opening stage of Route d'Occitanie.

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) were the best of the GC favourites, several of whom either went down or were held up by a large crash that halted most of the bunch during a complicated run-in to the line at Cazouls Lès Béziers. 

Thibaut Pinot was among those who hit the deck, but his Groupama-FDJ team said he finished with only minor injuries. All those affected were given the same finishing time as Coquard.

“It was a difficult finish,” said Coquard. “Jens Debusschere got me into a very good position, and then just before the last bend Colbrelli and Viviani went through on my inside. Colbrelli opened his sprint right away and I got onto Viviani’s wheel. Colbrelli faded about 50 metres from the line and I just managed to get past Elia before the line.

 “It was a good day for me and for the team. We all worked hard during the training camp coming into this race and to start like this shows that we’re all at a good level,” the French sprinter continued. “You can feel good in training, but racing can be very different, so it’s great to start with a win and it’s even better that I managed to beat someone as good as Viviani.”

The first day of racing in France since Paris-Nice came to a premature end back in March was run on one of the hottest days of the summer. It was already above 30°C when the bunch rolled out of Saint Affrique in front of large crowds, and the temperature continued to rise during the stage, touching 40°C as the riders crested the high ridge between the departments of Aveyron and Hérault.

The first significant action occurred on an initial loop out of and back into Saint Affrique. A break of five went away featuring Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie), Théo Delacroix (Circus-Wanty Gobert), Antonio Angulo (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Andreas Kron (Riwal Readynez) and Marti Marquez (Kern Pharma).

With Cofidis, B&B Hotels and Ineos maintaining a good tempo on the front of the bunch, the break’s advantage was kept to around four minutes. The quintet’s lead began to drop climbing the Col des 13 Vents, a second-cat ascent halfway into the stage, where not one of those 13 winds was offering any kind of relief from the intense heat.

 Angulo was reeled in by the peloton just after this climb. On the first pass through the finish with 35km remaining, the other four riders were still together. But within a handful of kilometres, Calmejane and Kron went clear in an attempt to hold off the peloton. With 25km left, the pair had an advantage of just 40 seconds and were, inevitably, caught with 15km to the line.

Ineos and the sprinters’ teams retained tight control at the front of the peloton, making a sprint was equally inevitable. Coquard admitted to being stressed as he considered the prospect, the layoff leaving him – and everyone else, he acknowledged – with no idea how their condition matched up to their direct rivals. 

“Of course everyone’s been working hard during that break and at the same time our main focus is the Tour de France,” he said. “But this is an important step towards that. It shows that I trained well during the long break we’ve had.” 

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