For their first ever day of racing on the Tour of Slovenia, Groupama-FDJ didn’t get so lucky on Wednesday for stage 1 of the 2024 edition. In a long day featuring more than 200 kilometres, Marc Sarreau and Paul Penhoët both crashed. The young French sprinter still managed to get involved in the bunch finish but could not do better than tenth on the line. He might have another opportunity on Thursday on stage 2.
A relatively flat and straightforward first stage was to open the Tour of Slovenia on Wednesday, over nearly 192 kilometers. “The stage actually got lengthened an hour before the start,” corrected William Green. “It was then over 200 kilometres (204.5, editor’s note), so a long day on the saddle. We had some rain at the start of the race, then a breakaway with the continental teams present got up to four minutes.” At the head of the race, Tomas Kalojiros (Pierre Baguette Cycling), Matic Zumer (Sava Kranj), Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), Szymon Tracz (Santic-Wibatech) and Aljaz Turk (Adria Mobil) could compete for the only day’s classified climb, but always remained controlled by the bunch. Entering the last hour of racing, the gap reduced to one minute, while Groupama-FDJ suffered a series of setbacks. “Unfortunately Marc Sarreau crashed quite hard around forty kilometres from the finish,” said William. “So he was not able to help Paul, who also crashed about twenty kilometres to go.”
“It was looking very good until around one kilometre to go”, William Green
The French sprinter returned quite quickly to the peloton, which also caught the last breakaway rider eight kilometres from the finish. Ben Healy and Jhonatan Narvaez competed the last intermediate sprint and kept pushing afterwards, but the bunch sprint couldn’t be avoided in Ormoz. “Considering Marc and Paul crashing, we did some very good work in the final,” added William. “We adapted the strategy, and it was looking very good until around one kilometre to go. Then, a lead-out rider from Uno-X came through the peloton, and Paul lost positions. Unfortunately, that’s part of sprinting, but we still got a top-10 in the end.” Unable to find a gap in the last 400 metres, Paul Penhoët therefore couldn’t sprint for the top positions and took tenth place on the line. He obviously expects better tomorrow if luck is more on his side. “Even though it’s a bit challenging, with a long climb at the middle of the race, we anticipate it will be controlled for another sprint, but we have to be ready for anything,” concluded William. “We’ll have a doctor look at Marc this evening to confirm if he starts tomorrow. Paul seems ok for the moment. He just has a few scratches.”
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