Rémi Capron (Van Rysel-Roubaix) earned his first victory of the season in a shock dash win on stage 3 of the Tour de l’Ain on Monday. In a decreased 10-rider bunch, the 24-year-old held off Tom Donnewirth (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Nicolas Breuillard (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93), who completed second and third, respectively.
Jefferson Alexander Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost), who took the yellow chief’s jersey with the stage 2 win, completed simply 4 seconds off his tempo in eleventh and secured the general title. Capron moved into second general, 24 seconds again, whereas Stefano Oldani (Cofidis) rounded out the GC podium in third.
EF Education-EasyPost managed the tempo of the peloton and pulled again a number of assaults to launch Cepeda to the entrance group after the lengthy, hilly day of racing.
The third and ultimate day of Tour d’lAin departed Lagnieu with eight categorised climbs looming massive throughout the 153 kilometres. The mega-climbing contest started with back-to-back summits of Col de Montrater (6.6km at 3.3%) and Côte de Mérignat (2km at 5.8%) within the first 21km.
The peloton remained collectively throughout the opening climbs, with KOM chief Robin Plamondon (CIC U Nantes Atlantique), Célestin Guillon (Van Rysel-Roubaix) and Cepeda not participating for factors within the early going, only a single-point separating the trio within the mountain classification standings. However, Groupama-FDJ’s Reuben Thompson took the chance on the second climb to assault and moved into third place by grabbing 7 factors.
There have been nonetheless no massive assaults till the peloton started a clockwise circuit from Poncin with 108km to go. Around two clockwise laps with a trio of climbs – Côte de Corveissiat (3.8km at 3.3%), Côte de Matafelon (3.1km at 4%) and Col du Berthiand (4.8km at 6%) – the tempo quickened.
With 96km to go on the slopes of the Matafelon climb for the primary cross, three riders opened a spot from the primary discipline – Geoffrey Bouchard (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Rémi Lelandais (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Maxime Jarnet (Van Rysel-Roubaix).
For a second day in a row Van Rysel-Roubaix put a rider within the breakaway, nevertheless it was LeLandais who scooped up the vast majority of the KOM factors to maneuver into that lead. EF Education-EasyPost set the tempo of the peloton behind, which gave the trio a spot of simply over a minute till the EF workforce started to chop down the time with 40km and two climbs to go.
Headed to the penultimate climb, Maximilien Juillard (Van Rysel-Roubaix) joined Rémi Cavagna (Movistar) to chase the lead group. Just forward, Lelandais had a mechanical and dropped off the entrance, and was handed by Juillard and Cavagna who took his place within the breakaway with the opposite two riders. Lelandais would safe the KOM title on the finish of his trip.
With 25km to go, solely Juillard and Cavagna remained on the entrance, and every rider lastly relented till the peloton swept away any remnants of the breakaway on the slopes of the Col du Berthiand a second time.
On the sharp descent headed into Ile Chambod, a number of riders assaults flew from each EF Education and Decathlon AG2R Mondiale. Capron took the shock win from a 10-rider lead group, whereas Cepeda completed simply 4 seconds off his tempo to safe the GC victory.
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