Pauriol leads FDJ-Big Mat 1-2

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Rémi Pauriol emerged victorious from a wind-swept Boucles du Sud-Ardèche-Souvenir Francis Delpech. The Frenchman soloed away from a breakaway which formed on the climb of Rocher de Sampzon to claim his first victory since he won the GP di Lugano exactly three years ago.

Behind, Pauriol's FDJ-BigMat teammate and the race's defending champion Arthur Vichot, who is still recovering from a broken collarbone sustained at Etoile de Bessèges, claimed the sprint for second ahead of Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

"I'm really pleased," said Pauriol to directvelo.com. "I was anxious to raise my arms again. I have often placed in recent years, for example I finished second in a stage of Paris-Nice last year. I have felt better and better in recent weeks."

Vichot was happy for his teammate, and encouraged that his time spent on his stationary trainer paid off with continued form. "I made a lot of sacrifices to get back to my best quickly," Vichot said. "I paid attention to diet and training and worked out on the home trainer."

The one-two result was a strong performance for the FDJ-BigMat team, which is stepping back up to WorldTour status after a year in the Pro Continental ranks.

The race began with a flurry of attacks, and it wasn't until 56km in that a breakaway could finally gain ground. Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ-BigMat), Romain Bardet (AG2R - La Mondiale), Nicolas Baldo (Atlas - Jakroo) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (La Pomme Marseille) were the lucky men to have the front of the race, and worked well together to gain 2:30 ahead of the day's first climb.

Omega Pharma-Quickstep did much of the work to control the gap, although the first trip of the Rocher de Sampzon did some of the work for them. The break lost 20 seconds there, while the peloton split in two over the climb.

With the effort to close the gap between groups in the peloton, the gap to the breakaway plummeted, and the four men were caught before the next trip up "the Rock".

Quickly, a second break formed, this time with seven formidable riders: Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Julien Bérard (AG2R La Mondiale), Dimitri Le Boulch (Big Mat Auber 93), Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne Schuller), Jonathan Hivert (Saur Sojasun), Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Itera Katusha) and Iljo Keisse (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

As the peloton continued to set a vicious pace and began to shatter anew, the breakaway was caught with 70km to go by a small leading group of 22 riders.

AG2R-La Mondiale took the pace making into the third trip up the Rocher de Sampzon, further whittling the lead group. Omega Pharma's Kevin De Weert attacked at the start of the final climb, but a counter-attack from Hivert sent him backwards.

Hivert's move was marked by Pauriol, and then Izaguirre was able to come across alone with just over 10km remaining to race.

The chasers were able to reel in the trio, leaving Hivert with Pauriol, Vichot, Christophe Riblon and Blel Kadri (AG2R), Jerome Pineau Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Izaguirre, Davide Malacarne (Europcar) and Georg Priedler (Team Type 1-Sanofi).

It would be Pineau who put in the next dig, but with both Pauriol and Vichot chasing, his move was doomed. Pauriol reached Pineau on the côte de la Vignasse, the day's final ascent, and then left him behind before the crest.

By the time he reached the finish, Pauriol enjoyed a 31 second gap over Vichot, who led out the sprint for second.

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