Over the moon after the opening stage, which concluded with a one-two finish and the first pro win of Tom Donnenwirth, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team experienced a completely different day on Thursday in stage 2 of the Tour de l’Ain. While the yellow jersey crashed early and was unable to fully defend his chances, David Gaudu had a “bad day,” and Yvon Caër’s men were therefore unable to make a significant impact in this decisive stage regarding the overall. There’s one more day of racing to go, with the Grand Colombier tomorrow.
With 3,400 metres of elevation gain, the second stage of the Tour de l’Ain was set to host the first real fight for the general classification on Thursday. The ascents of the Côte de Giron (8km at 6%) and the Col de Menthières (9km at 6.3%) in the last sixty kilometres, before a long uphill section towards Lélex Monts-Jura, were supposed to be enough to make the best climbers stand out. Starting with the yellow jersey on his shoulders, following his first pro win the day before, Tom Donnenwirth was hoping to hang on as long as possible. Unfortunately, it all started the wrong way for the Frenchman, as he suffered a crash after only about twenty kilometres. “The main consequences were a large bruise on the buttock and a fairly significant wound on the palm of his hand, which made it difficult for him to hold on to his handlebars,” explained Yvon Caër. “We knew it was going to be difficult from then on.” Although he returned to the pack, well compact behind a five-man breakaway, Tom Donnenwirth was unable to resist for long when the pace increased about fifty kilometres from the finish, on the Giron climb.
“We mustn’t give up,” Yvon Caër
Two kilometers further on, David Gaudu also got dropped, while the bunch was still made of about fifty men. “We quickly realized that David wasn’t feeling well,” confided Yvon. “As soon as it got hard, he was in trouble. He struggled a first time at km 70. He came back, but after a third of the climb up Giron, he was distanced. There’s no clear explanation at the moment; it was really a bad day. We then kind of lost our ambitions for the general classification because they were the two riders that were in the best position.” In a peloton reduced by half, Lorenzo Germani, Clément Braz Afonso, and Brieuc Rolland were able to get over the penultimate climb of the day before tackling the Col de Menthières. “We decided to go with Brieuc,” said Yvon. “He was doing well on Giron, he was pretty good on Menthières too, and he was just one minute behind the group of seven that was battling for third place at the top. Unfortunately, at the bottom of the descent, he was completely stopped due to cramps.” While the duo Nicolas Prodhomme/Cian Uijtdebroeks battled for victory after clearly going clear from the competition, the young Frenchman was unable to secure his place in the third group.
Lorenzo Germani was the first rider from the team to reach the finish line, in 23rd position, more than four minutes behind the winner. “Yesterday all lights were green, today they’re all red,” Yvon concluded. “That’s the law of high-level sport. It’s a day to forget, but we mustn’t give up. We have to hope that we can regain our strength tomorrow to be able to compete for the stage victory. For sure there’s the Grand Colombier, but there will still be forty kilometres left to possibly come back.” Moreover, due to respiratory problems, Rémy Rochas was forced to abandon the race on Thursday.
