France's National Championships will again feature a hilly road race. It has been a tight decision in the voting (11 votes for hill, 8 for flat), but eventually defending champion Gautier had reasons to cheer!
80 riders and 23 teams will make for one of the biggest road nationals, so also we followers have some reasons to expect something interesting today..
Let's begin with Gautier (La Vie), who's amongst the two clear top-favorites and - opposing to his biggest contender Roux (Rothaus) - with some decent support (5 riders) behind him. La Vie clearly one of those teams to control the race.
Also Simply Red Bull (Coppel/7 riders), Vueling (Kadri/7) or Festina (Pichon/8) with some strong lineups. Roy (Allianz) and Levarlet (Aker) as two more serious contenders, who both hadn't really outstanding seasons though.
Red Bull giving up on the role to control the race - at least for once:
build the early break, establishing a minutes-gap quickly!
La Vie - with a little help from Vueling - took over the job to chase this break and narrowed the gap back to 1'35" with 29km to go halfway through the race.
Vueling's support had a certain reason:
Kadri (Vueling)
El Fares (Bouygues)
launch a mid-race attack about 24km before finish!
The duo is brought back by La Vie quickly though, but the attacking won't stop yet:
Roux (Rothaus) goes for his first move with still 19km to go!
A crucial move? Of course it's a dangerous one, so we see the second top-favorite trying to follow:
Gautier (La Vie) jumps behind Roux, who already caught up to the early break, establishing a minutes-gap on the bunch quickly!
Also Gautier would join the leading group soon and it's quite a comfortable gap for the two big guns, as we now see more riders trying to follow:
This group clearly facing a huge effort to bridge across the leading group..
Let's get back to the front: 10km remaining and Roux goes again - Gautier counters immediately!
The early escapees can't follow anymore.. will we see the two top-favorites battling for the victory face-to-face?
Well, it ain't over yet for the chasing group(s), which merged to a 9-men-group with now just the hilltop-finish to be climbed (2km):
Roux/Gautier kept attacking each other every few minutes, but then again slowed down to shadow each other. They definitely play it risky that way, since their advantage went down to 30" on the new chasing group:
Levarlet
Pineau
Vichot
Pichon
Koretzky
Roy
Perget
Coppel
Vaugrenard
Will Gautier and Roux really risk to to make those chasers catching up that late in the race?
The duo definitely in danger now, where Pichon attacks out of this group to almost bridge across the leading two!
Levarlet also accelerating, while Gautier and Roux slowed down once again..
We're already inside the final km and - finally - Gautier launches another attack now! Roux trying to hang on, while Pichon couldn't yet close the gap..
..he won't be able to keep up with the leading duo, who went right in time to hold off the chasers..
..and Gautier's move was also too strong for Roux to follow! The defending champion wins again, gaining 11" on Roux in those final hundred metres. Those two almost f**ed it up here, but apparently were well aware of their tactical plays.
Pichon with a strong 3rd place 40" later, holding off Levarlet/Roy by a small margin. It just ain't Roy's season, to say so.
Up for the timetrial and we do have one overwhelming favorite: Coppel - this TT has written Coppel all over it's "face"..
Mottin, however, did ride quite a strong timetrial in the World Championships. Bonnet, Viennet and Bernaudeau as the remaining podium-contenders.
Those five late starters as the clear favorites for the Top-5 and - let's keep it short - they will all finish amongst the best five eventually.
Bonnet as the first of them to cross the finish:
beating long leading Vaugrenard by almost a minute!
Bernaudeau as next in line aiming for the podium, but the split times already told the story:
+ 36" on Bonnet for a clear provisional 2nd place..
Also Viennet clearly hadn't his best day, almost finishing outside the expected Top-5:
+ 37" as 3rd, just 7 seconds faster than Vaugrenard..
Mottin might not have hoped to beat Coppel today, but his most recent showing in the Worlds was quite impressive. The 2nd place must have been his clear goal, but the split times didn't put any pressure on Coppel and he's actually going to miss out on Bonnet, too:
+ 24" as new provisional 2nd!
Coppel though won't give a sh**t about those numbers, as he's leading the race comfortably at all splits:
easy victory then, beating Bonnet by 1'46" for the much expected TT-title!
Coppel 2015: no rainbow, but the national colors instead..
France's National Championships will again feature a hilly road race. It has been a tight decision in the voting (11 votes for hill, 8 for flat), but eventually defending champion Gautier had reasons to cheer!
