First WorldTour race ever, and first top-10 for Thibaud Gruel. On Wednesday, the former rider of “La Conti” got involved in the sprint which concluded the first stage of the Tour de Romandie. He took ninth place from a reduced bunch, while his leader David Gaudu proved active in the last hour of the race. The Breton and Lenny Martinez are now expected in the week’s first summit finish on Thursday at Salvan-Les Marécottes.
After a very intense prologue, a more traditional stage was on the program this Wednesday towards Freiburg on the Tour de Romandie. One hundred and sixty-five kilometers were to be covered, including two large loops around the Swiss town, and some difficulties with the climb of Arconciel ten kilometres from the finish. Due to the undecided outcome of the day, six men chose to hit the front early on: Joey Rosskopf, Fausto Masnada, Runne Herregodts, Raul Garcia Pierna, Juri Hollmann and Patrick Gamper. Their lead peaked at four minutes in the first half of the stage, before the sprinters teams started the proper chase. At the bottom of the Lorette climb (1km at 10%), starting the last big loop, the gap was reduced to less than two minutes, which led to counterattacks in the peloton. Jan Christen and Richard Carapaz made an offensive, and David Gaudu chased them back slightly later. “The stage went as we predicted,” said William Green. “We thought it was going to be a hard day and not a typical sprinters stage. We have two GC leaders here, so we gave full focus to them today to make sure they had an easy day. Even so, David was present on the Fribourg climb and was away with two others. It gives the team and him a lot of confidence for the days to come”.
“It is nice”, Thibaud Gruel
With a large peloton chasing behind, the trio didn’t however push for long and was caught with about 30 kilometres to go. The bunch then resumed its frantic chase and entered the final climb of the day just thirty seconds behind the break. At the top, Julian Alaphilippe made an attempt, and everything came back together. “I was in the top ten at the top of the last climb even though it went up quite fast,” said Thibaud Gruel, who was taking part in his first road stage at this level. “The “steamroller” pace of the WorldTour is different from what I’m used to, but I felt good.” In a bunch reduced to less than a hundred riders, he therefore kept on going. “My goal was to protect Lenny and David so that they didn’t lose time,” he recalled. “Cyril was supposed to do the sprint initially, but I found myself in front on the last climb, then David told me to sprint if I wanted to. I tried to follow the good waves and managed to position quite well even if the downhill finish was tricky. At the flamme rouge, I found myself in Enzo’s wheel, around 25th position. He moved back up, I followed a good wave and I was around fifteenth when I opened my sprint. I came with speed from behind, so I was able to move up a bit, but since I launched from far out, I lost 2-3 positions in the last metres.”
On the line, the young man eventually took ninth place, while Dorian Godon claimed victory. “I didn’t really expect it, but it’s nice, I’m happy,” he smiled. “It was a nice bonus that Thibaud did a really nice sprint for ninth place in his first WorldTour stage race,” added William. “It’s a good day for us.” Thursday’s stage will on the other hand be crucial, with a first summit finish in Salvan-Les Marécottes (7.6 km at 7.5%). “It will be a bit more challenging tomorrow with some climbs on the menu,” concluded William. “It will be time for David and Lenny to perform, and we will support them as well as possible so that they can deliver on the final climb.”
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