This isn’t his first top-5 finish in the Tour de France. In fact, it’s his third, but this one will certainly leave him hungry for more. On home soil and in front of his home crowd, Romain Grégoire was set to fight for victory in Pontarlier, after he managed to join the breakaway. Among the strongest in the final, the rider from Besançon suffered a crash about twenty kilometres from the finish, losing nearly a minute and all his hopes of winning. He ultimately fought for fourth place and took fifth. A frustrating outcome.
For nearly a week, part of the peloton had been focused solely on this twentieth stage of the Tour de France, heading to Pontarlier, which represented the last opportunity for many riders to show themselves. Due to a hilly 184-kilometre course, victory seemed promised to the breakaway. So, as it happened towards Toulouse or Carcassonne, a big fight was expected after leaving Nantua. Romain Grégoire, highly motivated for this day on home soil, immediately got in the mix in the front positions of the peloton, even though the first two climbs weren’t enough to form a leading group. “I was really tired this morning, and I expected to have a tough day,” said Romain. “In the end, my legs were great, I was in the game from the start, and I was able to have fun.” More importantly, after a non-stop battle in the rain for around fifty kilometres, the Groupama-FDJ puncher managed to enter the day’s breakaway, made up of thirteen men.
“I would have liked to be in the mix until the end,” Romain Grégoire
Nevertheless, it took another twenty kilometres to force the peloton to give up, and to gain a lead of more than two minutes. From then on, the breakaway rode together, quite united, until the main climb of the day, the Côte de Thésy (3.5 km at 9%), 62 kilometres from the finish line. The fight resumed at the front of the race, the breakaway broke apart, but everything got back together a little later at the bottom of the Côte de Longeville, the last climb of the day. Romain Grégoire proved to be among the strongest, briefly trying to accelerate, first on the climb, then on the downhill, but with exactly twenty-two kilometres to go, he ended up on the ground due to the wet road. “I think I did everything right until that crash,” said Romain. “It’s also my fault, but I think if Ivan Romeo hadn’t crashed, I could have avoided it. I knew that corner, I knew it was tight, but he crashed in front of me, I had to brake, and on wet roads, you pay for it right away.” Although he was able to get up relatively quickly, the rider from Besançon lost a significant amount of time due to a mechanical problem.
After he resumed racing about a minute behind the three leading riders who avoided the crash, Romain Grégoire caught a few groups, but Kaden Groves took the lead solo and held his own against his chasers. In contention for third place entering the final five kilometres, the Groupama-FDJ rider ultimately battled for fourth, and secured fifth place on the day after what ended up being a frustrating race. “The day’s result doesn’t mean much,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to take the stage win, even though Groves put on a great performance. It would have been difficult to beat him, but I felt good, and I would have liked to be in the mix until the end. There was more in store for us. It was great to be at the front on these roads, to be supported like that, it really boosted me, and that’s the positive side of the day. On the other hand, it would have been great to win in front of this crowd…” “Of course we’re disappointed, especially for him,” added Stéphane Goubert. “We were in his area, he was in the mix, and he really had this stage in mind like the whole team. He fought right to the finish line and hats off to him. It’s a real pity. He deserved better.”
The peloton will now head to Paris, where the 112th edition of the Tour de France will conclude on Sunday, with a twenty-first stage that will tackle the climb to Montmartre three times.
