The surprise is big. The Norwegian Tobias Foss was the strongest ahead of Chris Harper and Esteban Chaves during the 1st stage of the Tour des Alpes (April 15-19). By finishing fourth, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took a few seconds ahead of the main candidates for final victory. Foss takes the event jersey with 4 seconds ahead of Harper and 6 seconds ahead of O’Connor. Romain Bardet, ninth in the stage and overall, is the first Frenchman.
The morning breakaway benefited two men: Mattia Bais and Andrea Garosio. The two riders from Team Polti Kometa escaped on the first ascent of the Penone climb (4.4 km at 9.3%). The two Italians were able to take the lead in the two mountain prizes, allowing Mattia Bais to take on the best climber jersey. But the duo surrendered on the second climb of Penone, 20 km from the finish. In the most difficult percentages, beyond 20%, the two escapees were caught by the peloton, led by Valentin Paret-Peintre. The Frenchman from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale did a lot of work throughout the 4.4 km climb for his leader, the Australian Ben O’Connor.
Bardet was trapped
We had to wait for the descent to see the first movements in the peloton of favorites. Romain Bardet showed off his downhill qualities with Esteban Chaves (EF Education) and Chris Harper in his wheel (Jayco AlUla). The three riders took the lead before seeing Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) return alongside Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious). On the descent, the riders were hampered by a motorcycle, too close to them coming out of the corner.
10 km from the line, Valentin Paret-Peintre brought back Ben O’Connor. Behind him, the Norwegian Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) joined his leader and the former time trial world champion (2022) settled the group sprint. Romain Bardet, who was trapped in the final, finished 3 seconds behind the winner, alongside Geraint Thomas and Antonio Tiberi, candidates to succeed Tao Geoghegan Hart, the absent title holder this year.
The second stage will start from Salerno and arrive in Stans with a second category climb in the last 10 kilometers. The rest of the Tour des Alpes can be followed live on the L’Equipe channel.
Post-race live on the L’Équipe channel:
2024-04-15 14:07:58
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