Ok, so we’re not going to create a race thread for ALL races this year, especially since we’re only about 10 people reading here :)
This thread is available for you to write about all the races which don’t have a race thread.
Ok, so we’re not going to create a race thread for ALL races this year, especially since we’re only about 10 people reading here :)
This thread is available for you to write about all the races which don’t have a race thread.
Stage 2
Our traditional breakaway was split by Veistroffer’s (🇫🇷 Lotto-In.) attack 35 km from the line (it was the same little climb that would serve as finish 35 km later). The two Conti rider managed to catch up after the summit but the two Club riders were dropped. 10 km later, those were dropped as well.
The peloton base pace was set like yesterday by riders from 3 teams, with FDJ replacing Lotto. It was still Jacquelin🇫🇷 for Decathlon. When things got serious around 25 km from the line, Decathlon disappeared quite a bit and was replaced by Total.
FDJ started pulling and Costiou🇫🇷 attacked. While the peloton was blown to pieces, he wasn’t able to make a big gap over the best riders, and was soon joined by 4 other riders. They didn’t collaborate well and were not able to catch Veistroffer🇫🇷 up. They came back into what was left of the peloton but attacked again at the same time.
A motorbike crashed at the exit of an hairpin in a descent, Veistroffer🇫🇷 could avoid it, and then the passenger-commissar could signal for later groups.
Then a group with the same riders and a few extra ones reformed again.
Finally, Costiou🇫🇷 attacked one last time in a easier place (were there still 10 km to go?), and nobody in the little group wanted to follow. This group had several chances to catch Costiou🇫🇷 up, especially has the last 9 km were not as hectic as the 20 previous ones (narrow winding roads going up and down all the time), but basically only the several Total riders were pulling regularly and when the group would come near the FDJ rider, nobody would be willing to make the last little effort.
Near the last hill, M. Vercher (🇫🇷 Total) broke a bit away and got the 2nd place. Busy looking at each other, the gang of idiots (7 Frenchmen + Aranburu (🇪🇸 Cofidis) who won their sprint and 3rd place) is now about 30 seconds behind in GC, when they had the capacity of arriving with Costiou🇫🇷. Because they feared losing stage victory and a 4″ time bonus to Aranburu, they lost 30″ to Costiou, lost the stage victory and… lost a 4″ time bonus to Aranburu 🤣 Naturally, Mariault (🇫🇷 CIC) was one more time always present in the group that didn’t collaborate…
One may note that St-Michel–Auber had 2 riders in the front group, while FDJ, Decathlon and Cofidis only had 1 each!
Veistroffer🇫🇷 had been dropped in one of the last hills after being caught after the previous one, perhaps the one on top of which Costiou🇫🇷 attacked. He got the Mountain jersey, though.