Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – Stage 1 – Samitier in the Breakaway

A very mountainous course awaited the riders for the first stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Between Vizille and Saint-Ismier, the Cofidis team tried to take the initiative by slipping a rider into the day’s breakaway. Benjamin Thomas was the first to attack before Sergio Samitier took the lead. While today’s course didn’t go our riders’ way, tomorrow’s finish in Le Puy-en-Velay could suit Bryan Coquard’s strengths.   

Bingen Fernandez, sports director:
“We started out with the plan to be in the breakaway, with Benjamin Thomas and Sergio Samitier. In the end, Benjamin was very active; he was in a good little group of about ten riders at the start, but it wasn’t the right group, because there were other teams interested in the breakaway that missed it. 
They rode until another strong group broke away. Sergio was in that group. He hung on for a long time, but in the end, the intensity of the race took its toll on him.
On the final climb, we found ourselves with Buchmann in the group of favorites. With 2.5 km to go, he was struggling. A little later, we had a strong Sam Maisonobe who got dropped 1.5 km from the summit. He started to lose contact. In the end, we ran out of power."