Published on : 07/05/2023
The first of the two Pyrenean stages was particularly hard on the body. Although he managed to keep up the pace for most of the stage, leader Guillaume Martin conceded 2 min 54 sec and is now just outside the top 20. Bryan Coquard, meanwhile, took precious points in his quest for the green jersey.
Wednesday's race in Laruns had all the ingredients for the chaos so typical of mountain stages in the Grand Loop. An explosive cocktail on the mountainside, with low, threatening skies, incessant attacks, an unbearable pace and a totally dispersed peloton at the finish line. It took two passes and some of the favourites still in the running for the scenario to get completely out of hand.
Guillaume Martin hung on for a long time in a group of chasers. The fifty meters he conceded at the top of the Col Marie Blanque turned into precious time lost at the finish line. He crossed it in 26th position (at 2 min 55 sec). In the overall standings, however, he is still within touching distance of the "top 20". In 21st place, 4 min 32 sec behind the new yellow jersey, Jai Hindley.
Bryan Coquard's good points
Axel Zingle and Victor Lafay tried their luck at the start of the stage, when the tension was palpable for the day's breakaway. In the end, only Bryan Coquard managed to break into the first breakaway group. The clever "Coq" took the lead at the intermediate sprint in Lanne-en-Barétous. This enabled him to pocket 20 points in the race for the green jersey (84 pts) and close in on the previous day's winner, Jasper Philipsen (150 pts).
Tomorrow, it's back to business on the winding roads of the Pyrenees. Between Tarbes and Cauterets-Cambasque there are 144.9 km on the program, with four climbs including the Col d'Aspin (1st cat.), the legendary Tourmalet (hors catégorie) and the final climb (1st cat.). It's going to be another day of high tension on the Tour's roads.
THEY SAID
Guillaume Martin: "I had average feelings, but despite everything, I managed to stay in the game. The feeling at the finish is a bit mixed, I find it hard to describe my stage. It was a lot like the stage three days ago in the Basque country. I didn't need much to get into the group with Thibault Pinot and Romain Bardet. In the end, the 50 metres I missed at the top of the pass turned into a minute's delay at the finish. Tomorrow there may be rain, which could have an effect on the day's scenario.
Bingen Fernandez, team manager: "It was fast and tense from the start. We tried to get Ion and Victor into the breakaway, but we couldn't do it. We tried, we wanted to succeed, but we know that sometimes it doesn't work. That's part of the game and we have no regrets because the team performed very well. Tomorrow will be another very interesting stage for the overall classification. We'll be taking stock at the end of day 2 in the Pyrenees to see what strategy we'll be following for the rest of the race.