Tour du Doubs: Mattéo Vercher fastest in breakaway sprint to secure victory in Morteau

Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) won a breakaway sprint to take the victory at the Tour du Doubs. He was the fastest to the line, beating runner-up Adrien Maire (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and third-placed Iván Cobo (Equipo Kern Pharma) in Morteau.

The 39th Tour du Doubs continued the one-day racing in France with a 196.9km race from Pontarlier to Morteau. Off the back of the previous day's Tour du Jura Cycliste, this race offered another hilly challenge with seven categorised climbs and a flat run-in to Morteau.

The early breakaway included Pietro Mattio and Tim Rex (both Visma-Lease a Bike Development), Tom Portsmouth (Wagner Bazin WB) and Matisse Julien (CIC-U-Nantes), and then later joined by Henri-François Renard-Haquin (Wagner Bazin WB) and Maximilien Juillard (Van Rysel Roubaix).

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Juillard fell off pace with 80km to go, but the remaining five continue on into the more challenging last half of the stage with four back-to-back climbs: La Roche di Prêtre, Côte des Fins, Côte du Barboux and Côte du Cerneaux Billard.

Arkea-B&B Hotels, Unibet Tietema Rockets, Uno-X and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 set the pace behind the five riders in the breakaway, holding the gap at a manageable two minutes.

But as the route hit the final series of ascents, the breakaway lost ground and all five were brought back into the fold with 40km to go.

José Manuel Díaz (Burgos Burpellet BH) opened a small gap and he was joined by Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Alex Díaz (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). The trio only had a sliver of an advantage over a chasing group that included Menno Huising (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pablo Carrascosa (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Giacomo Villa (Wagner Bazin WB).

The break split apart just ahead of the Côte du Barboux, and only Juaristi and José Manuel Díaz were left out front. But with on 12 seconds on the field, their efforts would come to an end before the final two climbs of the day.

A lead group of climbers emerged on the final ascent of the Côte du Cerneaux Billard that included the previous day's winner, Guillaume Martin and Clément Braz Afonso (both Groupama-FDJ), Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Adrien Maire (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility), ván Cobo (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

They pushed their lead out to 20 seconds over the top with a 12km descent and flat run-in to the finish line, where they contested the breakaway sprint for the victory.

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