Stage 3 of the Tour de Wallonie was supposed to create some gaps, and it really did. This Wednesday, the peloton was shattered on the final circuit around La Roche-en-Ardenne, where two men from the breakaway eventually fought for victory ahead of a group of around fifteen riders. In the end, Rudy Molard managed to complete the stage with the other GC contenders and took thirteenth place on the line. He now sits in ninth position overall.
The strongest men were due to be in front on Wednesday in stage 3 of the Tour de Wallonie. With nearly 3,500 metres of elevation gain on the menu, and seven consecutive climbs in the final 70 kilometres, the fight for the general classification was surely expected. Before the final battle, however, there was one at the beginning. “The start of the race was quite fast because a lot of riders wanted to join the breakaway, and we also wanted to be part of the battle if a move of dangerous riders broke away,” said Jussi Veikkanen. “In the end, however, a group of five with no one really threatening for the overall got away. Israel-Premier Tech and Redbull-Bora hansgrohe chased a bit, but the break played it smart with the peloton.” When they tackled the difficulties featuring in the second part of the race, Markus Hoelgaard, Jimmy Janssens, Gilles De Wilde, Johan Jacobs, and Thomas Bonnet still had a lead of about five minutes, and some of them still had some gas left in the tank. The peloton did get closer, but quite slowly, while some riders were already dropped and Groupama-FDJ suffered a setback. “The initial plan was to make the race hard and join a counterattack on the final circuit, which we had to do twice,” Jussi explained. “However, Rudy suffered a mechanical problem on the first climb of the circuit. We managed to change his bike, but there were already groups everywhere and we had to use teammates so that he could get back into the first group. Some of our bullets for the day were used at that point.”
“It’s a shame that he wasted some energy uselessly”, Jussi Veikkanen
After quite a chase, the French puncher was able to come back in the peloton. On the other hand, he and his teammates were unable to join in the aggressive race that was going on. “It was planned that we would follow the moves with Sam and Lewis, like that of Juan Pedro Lopez, but they were taking care of Rudy and they used their energy like that,” said Jussi. “This is why we were not as present as yesterday in the final. That’s how it is…” Yet, Sam Watson and Thibaud Gruel were still alongside their leader starting the last lap, thirty kilometres from the finish, while Janssens and Hoelgaard maintained a very good gap, which was enough to fight for the win. In the last three climbs, the fight resumed among the favorites, Rudy Molard held on tight and was never completely dropped. At the top of the last climb, with seven kilometres to go, the Frenchman was ten seconds behind his rivals, but he managed to close the gap in the downhill, leading to La Roche-en-Ardenne. “He would have been more comfortable without having spent a bullet earlier in the stage,” said Jussi. “We saved the day, but he was a bit at the limit in the final. However, he’s going very well because there were only strong guys in front. We can’t say much more about it, it’s just a shame that he wasted some energy uselessly. Fortunately, we’re still in the mix.”
Within a group of sixteen riders who came for third place, Rudy Molard took 13th and is now in eighth place overall, thirteen seconds behind the leader Corbin Strong and two from the podium. “The overall can still change these last two days, because it can be decided with the positions addition,” concluded Jussi. “On paper, the last two stages look less difficult than today, but we’ll see.”
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