Cycling: Rémy Di Grégorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) has won the French-dominated queen stage of the Tour de la Provence. Overall leader Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) finished seventh and was able to defend his leader's jersey. His teammate Mathias Frank from Switzerland finished ninth as the best non-Frenchman.
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Di Grégorio wins the "French Championships"
After the Prolog and the sprint arrival on the first stage today was the king's stage of the four-day tour through southern France. It led over 144 kilometers from La Ciotat to Gémenos. On the last eleven kilometers, the final ascent Col de l'Espigoulier, with an average gradient of 5,4 percent, had to be mastered. As might be expected, a matter for the French. At the end of the day, no fewer than nine local pros finished in the top 10. Turned out to be the strongest Remy Di Gregorio, who has not won a race for almost four years. Today the 32-year-old left all his opponents behind. finished second Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energy), who last year the eighth stage of the Tour de France could win. Tony gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), winner of the Etoile de Besseges 2018, completed the podium. His teammate is still in the lead in the overall standings Alexandre Geniez.
🇫🇷Remy Di Gregorio of 🇫🇷@Delko_MP_KTM wins stage 2 of 🇫🇷#TourLaProvence (📹@BrainOnWheels) #TDLP2018 pic.twitter.com/FCNitBqvIL
— World Cycling Stats (@wcstats) 10. February 2018
Si Gregorio et le tournament. Les 2 belles surprises au milieu des cadors #TDLP2018 pic.twitter.com/9HPHqq8Gsg
— Sebastien Joignot (@SJoignot) 10. February 2018
Florian Nowak on the tough stage
Of course, the German Continental Team Lotto Kern-Haus was at the start again today. Right at the beginning they wanted to place a driver in the group, but unfortunately this was not possible due to the first climb right at the beginning and the associated high speed. In the end, almost the entire team crossed the finish line in a gruppetto – including the Velomotion editor Florian Nowak. After the race he told us about his tough day.
“Today was pretty tough, as expected. The 6 km long ascent right at the beginning was quite challenging. And since, of course, some wanted to join the group with a view to today's finale, the pace was full throttle, so that a few riders have already dropped out. A part of our team, including me, was able to hold on well and even take part in the jumping for the group on the plateau after the climb. But the pace was still so fast that there was no escape. After about an hour everything calmed down a bit.
Somewhat surprisingly, the finale opened quite early. 20 km before the final ascent, which had to be mastered twice, it suddenly turned into a totally narrow path that was curvy and wavy. Since I wanted to eat again 20 km before the ascent and stopped briefly, I was far too far behind and could hardly make up any positions due to the high speed, which continued until the ascent. There I just had to drive at my own pace and couldn't close an initially small gap because I had already lost too many grains beforehand. With a small 4-man group we then waited on the flat section for a larger group behind us in order to master the last climb relatively relaxed. It was definitely tough today this early in the year, but I'm pretty happy with my form so far, considering I've only trained on cross-country skis so far.
Let's see how well we'll all recover until tomorrow, when we'll tackle the last stage with our full team strength. It will certainly not be easy on the undulating terrain.”
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