The Dolphin race is back!!! No, not those frolicsome sea mammals, but the French stage race that tempts and tunes up those Tour de France hopefuls.

Stage 1: Saint-Étienne  to  Saint-Étienne, 170km

The Belgian with Stelvio and Mont Ventoux on his palamares did it again! Lotto-Soudal’s Thomas de Gendt made the seven-man break-of-the-day, collected maximum points for the KOM competition, and then with the peloton leaving the chase too late, dispatched his breakaway partner Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale) and soloed to a glorious victory. Domont claimed second with Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) attacking from the pack to round out the podium.

He was celebrating with a kilometre to go and we LOVED IT. We weren’t the only ones.

I was going for the mountains jersey but now I can’t wear it because I’ve got the yellow jersey.

In fact Thomas claimed all of the jerseys except that of  best young rider, which went to a   Pierre Latour. Some recompense for Ag2r La Mondiale at their ‘home’ race.

They really are two of the best exponents of the art of the breakaway.

Full report at Cycling News

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Header image: Thomas de Gendt © PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images