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Decathlon sports director Luke Rowe ‘super proud’ of the way his team handled adversity on stage 7.
It was a difficult day for Decathlon CMA CGM and their leader Paul Seixas yesterday.
The young Frenchman crashed early in the race and his team worked all day to close a four-minute gap back to the GC favourites. Seixas was left bleeding but managed to complete the stage after a herculean effort. He currently sits in 7th place on GC, 1:21 adrift of the leader Tuckwell.
A group of seven riders has attacked from the peloton as the race heads for the Col de Pré. The group includes the leader in the king of the mountains competition, Clement Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United).
Just 99 riders remain in the peloton after a week beset with illness and injury, leading to a high number of early withdrawals.
A further seven riders have left the race prior to today’s stage.
The race is officially underway.
The week has seen a real mix of results, with four stages going to the breakaway, one sprint finish, a team time trial win for Visma-Lease a Bike, and the first of the GC riders coming to the fore on yesterday’s stage, in the shape of Isaac Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates, who took his first WorldTour victory on French soil, and climbed into third place on GC.
The peloton tackle four climbs along today’s route. The route heads uphill immediately on the category 1 rated Col du Pré. The Montée de Bisanne and Col des Aravis follow, before a summit finish on the Plateau de Solaison, where the final GC battle will play out, following a fascinating week of racing.
Welcome to live coverage of the final stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. A decisive final mountain stage which may be relatively short in terms of distance at just 120 kilometres, but which packs in over 4,000m of altitude gain.
The GC hangs in the balance, with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Luke Tuckwell defending the yellow jersey, with a lead of 42 seconds over Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) in second.