Tour du Limousin: Romain Gregoire seals overall victory as Hugo Page wins final stage

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Hugo Page (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) won the sprint on stage 4 ahead of Paul Magnier (Trinity Racing) on the final day of racing at the Tour du Limousin-Périgord. Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-Samsic) took third.

Finishing safely in the peloton was Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) to claim the general classification title. The GC storyline did not change from Thursday as Grégoire retained his 38-second margin over second-placed Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team) and Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) finished third overall, another 12 seconds back.

“It’s done, and I’m actually quite happy it is over. I didn’t expect to win a GC in my first professional year, and it’s already my second one! I surprise myself from race to race,” siad Romain. “It’s a little relief because you never know what can happen on a circuit like that. In the end, everything worked out fine. I was not in danger on the circuit, and there weren’t a lot of attacks. It was a pretty quiet day, and it was also good like that.” 

The sun came out on the technical 43km to the finish in Limoges, which featured two tough climbs on each pass of the three-and-a half-lap circuit, and signalled urgency to the peloton to close down the 1:45 gap to the four-rider breakaway.

Trinity’s Adrien Boichis launched an attack with 10km to go, the day for the final rider, Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), from an original break of five. A counter-attack by Lorenzo Quartucci (Team Corratec) then went past him 3km later. With 5km to go the peloton absorbed that effort and it was full flight to the final 1.8km uphill run to the finish, Grégoire at the front.

Rolling under the 1km-to-go banner, Grégoire made his acceleration at the front of the peloton, riding for Lewis Askey. His Groupama-FDJ teammate then lost position to finish sixth, trailing the AG2R Citroën Team duo of Cosnefroy and Clément Venturini who rounded out the top five. 

The day’s result was the first pro victory for 22-year-old Page. Grégoire, two years younger, added the best young rider classification to his overall title on Friday. With the wins on stage 1 and 3, he never relented the leader’s jersey across four days.

Cosnefroy added a second fourth-place finish on the final day, along with two podiums. The closest he got to the young compatriot was 19 seconds, with bonus seconds he earned with a second-place finish.

“It wasn't necessarily planned for me to compete in the sprint today but the circumstances of the race and the nervousness in the final allowed me to find an opening. It shows that the form is really good. Obviously, I'm frustrated not to have taken a win but the work I've done in recent weeks will continue to bear fruit,” said Cosnefroy.

The fourth and final stage of the Tour du Limousin is another rolling day with four intermediate sprints spread across the first 110 of the 170.6 kilometres. Tom Mainguenaud (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) held an 11-point lead in the sprint classification, which was not in jeopardy.

The middle of the race, kilometre 60 to 120, pack in four categorised climbs ranging from category 2 to 3 variety, just to wear down the legs and give a boost to the KOM classification, Martin Marcellusi (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizané) with a two-point advantage over Nicolas Debeaumarché (St-Michel-Mavic-Auber 93).

Two riders did not take the start, Axel Mariault (Cofidis), who crashed yon stage 3, and Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën Team).

After the first sprint contest in Ladignac, 14.5km from where the flag dropped, 15 riders swarmed at the front to ignite attacks, including one by Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team). Anther 8km down the road, five riders made separation -  Marcellusi, Thomas Joseph (Tarteletto-Isorex ), Stijn Appel (A Bloc CT), Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team), and Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies).

Across the next intermediate sprint at Saint-Cyr, 49.5km completed, the quintet had a gap of 2:40.

That margin held across the summits of the first two climbs, Côte de Saint-Victurnien (2.6km at 4.2%) and Côte de Peyrelade (2.6km at 4.7%), where Marcellusi padded his KPM lead. The peloton kept the riders in check, and in a repeat performance the same trio of teams controlled the front, Groupama-FDJ, Arkéa-Samsic and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty.

A stiffer ascent  at the mid-point of the race on the third climb, Côte de Villerajouze (2.7km at 5.8%), was another minor victory for Marcellusi, and the gap to the peloton began to shrink, now at 2:05 with under 73km to go. The Bardiani rider’s mission to secure the KOM was complete and he dropped from the breakaway.

After crossing the final categorised climb, Côte des Monts (1.1km at 5,3%), the leading four descending with their time advantage dropping under two minutes and then hit the finishing circuits with 43.1km to go.

Arkéa-Samsic applied the pressure at the front of the peloton across the first full finishing circuit in Limoges, working for Kévin Vauquelin, who was fifth in the GC, 1:08 off the lead. The gap for the breakaway dipped under one minute as Joseph dropped back and left the trio of Appel, Erviti and Ourselin out front.

The gap dropped to 33 seconds on the penultimate lap as a mass of riders, still led by Arkéa-Samsic, focused on devouring all that time for a fast finish. Grégoire remained protected near the front by Groupama-FDJ. Ourselin picked up the pace at the front of the break, and Appel could not stay engaged, then Erviti fell back, leaving the TotalEnergies rider in a solo quest for glory with under 21km to go. The Frenchman’s effort ended on the first half of the bell lap and the attacks from the peloton took over.

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