His revenge was almost perfect. After he was left disappointed with his sprint on Monday, Romain Grégoire came very close to victory this Tuesday on stage 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné. While his teammate Rémy Rochas spent the day in the breakaway, the 21-year-old Frenchman came into action in the last kilometre, as he followed and countered Derek Gee’s attack. However, he was unable to drop the Canadian, who managed to overtake him in a final effort. The puncher from Groupama-FDJ therefore took second place, three seconds ahead of the rest of the bunch. He is now third overall and best young rider. On Wednesday, a very important time trial will be on the menu.
Heading towards Les Estables, the riders faced another hilly profile on Tuesday on the Critérium du Dauphiné. Like the day before, the punchers were expected at the end of the 181 kilometers of racing, but unlike the day before, the breakaway did not go from kilometre 0 but after almost forty minutes of a fierce fight. “The stage looked like yesterday’s one, and since the breakaway almost made it on Monday, it obviously gave some ideas to some riders,” explained Rémy Rochas. “Harry Sweeny went at one point, and I thought it would be better to go straight away, and then see if it came back from behind.” However, only Nicolas Prodhomme followed the move, and they were eventually only three at the head of the race. “We expected the race to be fast at the start and we knew that Uno-X was going to control, but it took a while for the break to go,” summarized Benoît. “Then, we had more of a conservative approach while keeping Romain and David safe.” At the front, Rémy Rochas and his two companions, however, never got more than three minutes of a lead over a vigilant peloton. Fifty kilometres from the finish, starting a long uphill section, their gap was even reduced to a minute. “It was a bit complicated with just three men, so they decided to slow down a little to encourage other teams to attack behind, which is what happened,” added Benoît. “Valentin came out, but a bit too late behind Juul-Jensen and it proved difficult for him.”
“The guys told me to keep believing”, Romain Grégoire
After some ten kilometres of chasing, the French champion got back to the peloton, while Rémy Rochas was distanced from the breakaway twenty-three kilometres from the finish, shortly before the descent that led to the bottom of the climb final. “I’m in rather good shape, but I’ve had a little muscle pain since yesterday and I had a little stomachache today,” he explained. “I was empty in the end.” “We then got back to a fairly classic scenario, the peloton rode hard, and everything came back together,” added Benoît. The breakaway was caught just after the three-kilometre banner in the climb of Les Estables (3.8 km at 4.8%), and a few moments later, Kevin Geniets brought Romain Grégoire back to the front. “I didn’t feel super good today,” said the young man. “The long, thirty-kilometre slight uphill drag really hurt the legs. I told the guys, who were trying to position me, but they gave me confidence right away, put me in the right conditions, told me to keep believing and they were right. Once you feel the finish line getting closer and you enter the last kilometers, your legs kind of unlock.”
“The team is up there in the mix”, Benoît Vaugrenard
The former European world champion fought to stay at the front of the peloton and was therefore ready to react in the last kilometre while a reduced bunch sprint seemed to be looming. “I didn’t expect someone to go with 500 metres to go,” he said. “But when I saw the way Derek Gee attacked, I didn’t hesitate at all. I went straight away. I may have gotten too excited as I passed him with 300 metres to go. I thought he was done, so I tried to go, but he had a second bullet. I didn’t think about anything, I was trying to give everything until the line, but it wasn’t enough, once again. He also rode perfectly, taking back my wheel and passing me at the last moment. It’s frustrating.” In the last fifty metres, Romain Grégoire indeed realized the win wasn’t going to be his while the bunch was a few metres behind. “In such lactic and hard efforts, you no longer see the signs too much,” added Benoît. “He passed Derek Gee directly, it was instinctive, especially at the top of a hill. Yet, he was still 300 metres away. We can’t blame him. He should have stayed in the wheel, but it’s always easy to say afterwards. We would have liked to win, we are not satisfied with second place, but Romain gained some confidence back. He’s doing better and better. The team is up there in the mix, that’s what’s important, even if we’re obviously disappointed to miss out on victory.”
After a frustrating ninth place on Monday, Romain Grégoire still snatched a remarkable second place on Tuesday. “I’m obviously disappointed, I almost believed I was going to make it at 300 metres,” he added. “I don’t like coming second, that’s for sure. I’m gutted, but I was dead, I left everything on the road, so I don’t have that many regrets. I’m not sure I had the legs to do much better. He was simply stronger.” A few minutes after the finish, Romain Grégoire, now third overall, came to the mixed zone with the white jersey of the best young rider on his shoulders. “It’s a nice little consolation prize, and I’ll be able to ride a good time trial tomorrow with this jersey, but that’s not what I was looking for,” he concluded. On Wednesday, the general classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné should change significantly over the 34.4 kilometers separating Saint-Germain-Laval from Neulise.
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