The 2024 Tour of the Basque Country started on Monday with a technical and explosive time trial in Irun, where the two leaders of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team both secured a good result. After ten kilometres of effort, Romain Grégoire placed nineteenth, 29 seconds behind the winner Primoz Roglic, while David Gaudu took twenty-second place, 31 seconds behind. Both of them remain in the mix just behind the other race’s favourites. On Tuesday, the peloton will reach Cambo-les-Bains, France.
Another day of racing in the WorldTour calendar, and a few more cobblestones on the menu. Although those featuring this Monday on the opening day of the Tour of the Basque Country had nothing to do with those tackled the day before on the “Ronde”, the route of the individual time trial in Irun still was quite technical. “The first part was rather in the city centre, and you had to be careful with the small city cobblestones,” explained Maxime Latourte, one of the team’s coaches. “There was then a more rolling portion, then a 1700-metre hill averaging 5% where you had to go quite strong. The return was mainly downhill, with a series of technical curves yet not very dangerous. It was a nice course, short but quite balanced. Powerful riders could express themselves, but you also had to be good technically.” Given the route, the weather was a day’s key factor, and Groupama-FDJ, like their rivals, took it into account. “There were small risks of rain in late afternoon,” added Maxime. “We therefore make our leaders start at the beginning to avoid these risks.”
“We’ll be able to take advantage of this position to try things”, Romain Grégoire
The big favorites of the Tour of the Basque Country therefore almost all started in the first hour of racing. Among them, David Gaudu first set a very good time in 13’05, then Romain Grégoire did slightly better in 13’02. Primoz Roglic stopped the clock with the best mark and pushed the two men from Groupama-FDJ back to 28 and 31 seconds. Over the course of the time trial, and particularly over the first two hours, the two French riders slipped outside the provisional top-10 before the final result gave them 19th and 22nd places. “David did a good time trial, and he managed it quite well,” said Maxime. “On the way back with the tailwind, where you had to push a big gear, he was maybe a bit less comfortable, but he did a good climb and had good feelings. Romain did more or less the same trial, and only made a small mistake in the double bend at the start. After 150 metres, he went out of the first left turn too much in the outside and therefore lost time to get back to the right. He had to unclip but managed to get back on track quickly and didn’t lose much time. At the end of the day, they are where they belong. A few guys are flying, but given the incredible competition here, their performance is very good.”
Lorenzo Germani, Clément Russo, Rémy Rochas and Quentin Pacher also lost less than a minute to Roglic on Monday. “Everyone did it properly,” added Maxime. “They didn’t take excessive risks, but these are good time trials. The week is on, we want to show that our leaders are ready, and we’ll race aggressively.” “We knew this was an important time trial for the GC,” concluded Romain. “We did a decent stage with David, which puts us just behind the big favorites, in ambush. We’ll be able to take advantage of this position to try things and take advantage of being two in the mix to get a stage win and/or a good position overall.” On Tuesday, a challenging terrain towards Cambo-les-Bains, on the other side of the border, could already bring some action.
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