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Volta Comunitat Valenciana & Etoile de Bessèges 2026 (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by EvilCartyen@lemmy.world to c/procycling@lemmy.world

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Two lovely races this week:

This week we see the first races of some of the major players in the spring campaigns and the season overall.

Mads Pedersen, Joao Almeida, Biniam Girmay, and Giulio Pellizari will ride their first race against Evenepoel and the cat-killer Tiberi in and around Valencia.

And in the Bességes we will see French star Paul Lapeira battle it out with an assortment of other strong-but-not-quite-star rider such as Kubiš, Delettre, Costiou, Teuns and an apparently reanimated Groenewegen.

Enjoy!

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[–] Deschanel2017@lemmings.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bessèges, stage 2

Lots of rain today. A bit of wind too.

My report

Again, it was a stereotyped scenario with the standard 4-Conti/PT-men breakaway left 2-3 minutes ahead.

Small teams organised the chase and brought the time back, but then Décathlon and FDJ took the lead and the gap stabilised, despite the breakaway having one man (Bouquet🇫🇷 from St-Michel–Auber).

Décathlon tried to create an echelon, but only for half a mile or so. It was enough for a small split at the back, in which Groenewegen🇳🇱, who had been staying at the back since the beginning of the last small climb, was caught, which caused Unibet to stop taking part in the work at the front of the peloton. The split was resorbed, but still...

In the breakaway, about 4 or 5 km from the line, as the gap was stable around 20-25 seconds, Leroux (🇫🇷 Total) couldn't relay any more. As Guégan (🇫🇷 CIC, ex Nantes) didn't cover up for him, Arnaud Tendon (🇨🇭 Roubaix) accelerated to drop them.

Behind, one FDJ crashed into a sidewalk, bringing a Saint-Michel–Auber and another rider with him. I heard the FDJ rider was the one who was supposed to sprint today (Huens🇫🇷).

Finally, sprinter teams came again to chase.

Tendon was only caught 50 metres from the line! That's even closer than yesterday when Vercouillie was caught some 300-400 m from the line. Tendon ranked 13^th^, apparently; therefore only 12 sprinters from the peloton managed to pass him.

3 sprinters arrived together, and it took several minutes to decide which one came first.