Two surprising stage victories provide double the delight in France and Italy
Paris-Nice Stage 6: Sisteron to Vence, 198km
Rudy Molard‘s recon rides of the finish gave him the advantage in a fiercely fought finale. The Frenchman picked the perfect moment to attack and was strong enough to hold off the chasing pack to give Groupama-FDJ their second victory in the race. Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and Quickstepper Julian Alaphilippe, both aggressive in the closing kilometres, rounded out the podium. A fantastic display of teamwork by the Astana squad kept Luis Leon Sanchez in the maillot jeune even when riding on a teammate’s bike. Sky’s Wout Poels suffered an awful crash which took him out of the race so Alaphilippe moves into second at +22secs with Marc Soler (Movistar) third at +26secs.
Video…
When you can’t quite believe it… Rudy’s 2nd professional victory and stage win number four for the French at this race.
Broken collarbone for Wout Poels. I’m relieved it wasn’t worse after his high speed crash #GetWellWout
Team of the day. Can they do it all over again on the Queen stage?
A funny thing happened on the way to the break…
The peloton took the wrong route at 10km and some riders who were at the back found themselves in the break by accident
“It was the first time in my career that I got in a front group by accident” – Thomas de Gendt
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #ParisNice
Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3: Follonica to Trevi, 234km
A leg-breaker of a finish saw LottoNL-Jumbo’s Primoz Roglic power away from a select group to sail solo over the line with a jaunty victory flourish. Second place Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) chased hard but couldn’t quite close the gap and Tiesj Benoot continued his flying form with third. Geraint Thomas (Sky) finished 4th and that was enough to give him the overall lead on count back from BMC’s Greg van Avermaet with Chris Froome third at +3secs.
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Jaunty joy after being held up behind the crash on stage 2 and losing 1:42mins…
Geraint has the leader’s jersey. Does Kwiato have his eyes on it though?
#GetWellSimon
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #TirrenoAdriatico
Header image: Rudy Mollard – JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
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