Paris – Nice – Van Genechten – A missed opportunity –

THE EXPLANATION

“In the last kilometer Dries Devenyns dropped me into position perfectly. But I was limited because we had spent a lot of energy trying to keep the wheels after Sky and Orica-GreenEDGE forced an echelon,” Jonas Van Genechten explained after taking ninth place in the sprint that was won by Arnaud Démarre (FDJ). “I was not able to do much more as a result. This is definitely a missed opportunity, but I can tell that my condition is there, and I’ll try again tomorrow.”

THE FACT OF THE DAY

The echelon break which happened around the 150th kilometer nearly cost IAM Cycling dearly. All caught off guard by the acceleration that Sky, Orica-GreenEdge and Tinkoff made, the riders on the Swiss World Tour team had to ride flat out along with Katusha in order to be able to bridge back up to the main peloton containing all the favorites.

THE QUOTE

“I breathed a sigh of relief when the chase group with our guys rejoined the main peloton at the front of the race,” explained Eddy Seigneur, one of the directeurs sportifs for IAM Cycling alongside Lionel Marie. “We were able to fix our mistake this time. I hope that this stage will be a lesson to the guys.”

THE UNLUCKY

Vegard Stake Laengen. The lanky Norwegian was not able to finish in the lead group. In spite of the fact he suffered a puncture just before the echelon blew up the pack late in the race, the Scandinavian was able to bridge back up to the peloton only to suffer a second puncture on one of the final sectors of dirt road.

THE INFO

Jérôme Coppel. The current time trial champion of France has been suffering with a bad cold since Friday, and is hoping simply to “survive” the racing, with the care and advice of a team doctor.

THE NUMBER

43.352 in km/h, which is the average speed that the riders chalked up throughout the 198 kilometer stage, thanks largely to an often favorable wind.

Race pictures – BettiniPhoto2016