Photo credit Elise Chauveau – DirectVelo
Date: Monday, 06 September 2021
The successor of the Belgian Loic Fly (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) among the Tour of the Doubs is called Dorian Godon ! The training runner AG2R Citroën Team sprinted in the streets of Pontarlier a group of twenty runners. Two days after his success at the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs, the Eritrean Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) took second place, while the Belgian Tom Paquot (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) completed the podium. Natnael Tesfatsion (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), another Eritrean, and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
From the start of the race, a group of eleven men formed and took their distance from the peloton. At the front, we find Mattia Bais (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Cedric Beullens (Sport Flanders-Baloise), Damian Lüscher (Swiss Racing Academy), Leonardo Tortomasi (Zabù Wines), Raphaël Parisella (Rally Cycling), Patryk Tybor (Dukla Banska Bystrica), Jesse Raas (X-Speed United Continental), Simone Sano (Electro Hyper Europe), Dillon Corkery, Conn McDunphy and Bernat Font Mas (EvoPro Racing).
A few kilometers further, and while the breakaway advance is nearly 8 minutes, Anthony Delaplace unexpectedly and a little crazy decides to go against it. The runner of the Team Arkéa-Samsic, who will drive alone for about 80 kilometers, ends up catching the ten leading men – Corkery was left behind very early and has not been in the squad for quite a while – halfway through the race, so they are again eleven at the front of the race, the gap to the peloton then being around 7 minutes.
While this lead is reduced as the kilometers pass, the breakaway loses a new element to just under 80 terminals of Pontarlier, in this case the young Italian Simone Sano. At 50 kilometers from the finish, the gap between the ten leading riders – who will lose shortly after Patryk Tybor – and the peloton, notably led by the team AG2R Citroën Team, is still 4’15 “, but it is reduced sharply thereafter, so much so that it is only 1’10” at 20 markers of the goal, then 30 seconds at the foot of the last climb of the day, the climb of Larmont (4.4 km at 5.2%), whose summit is located 6.5 km from the finish.
