In the final two stages of the Alpes Isère Tour, and particularly on Sunday, “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ showcased its team strength. On the queen stage, three of their riders even found themselves fighting in the final. After many attacks throughout the day, Rémi Daumas was caught in the final two kilometres, while Maxime Decomble managed to get rid of most of his rivals to secure second place overall. Max Bock also took fifth place on GC. “La Conti” took the team classification but just missed the victory they were aiming for.
To start the decisive weekend of the Alpes Isère Tour, 176 kilometres were on the riders’ menu on Saturday, with the Mont du Faz (13 km at a 6% gradient) serving as the key point after just sixty kilometres. “It was a difficult stage with this climb at the start of the race, then the last hundred kilometres where the teams were not complete,” said Jérôme Gannat. “Lewis took the breakaway, which allowed him to take a lead, even though they tackled the climb with a gap of only one minute. He managed to reach the summit with the bunch, which confirms his growing form. After that, we still had four riders at the front in a peloton of forty.” Then, the bunch proved sometimes calm, sometimes active, until a lone man broke away in the last sixty kilometres. Counterattacks occurred in the peloton in the final climb of the day, but it was ultimately a group of around twenty men who caught the fugitive seven kilometres from the finish. Lewis Bower was still present alongside Maxime Decomble and Max Bock, but he was unable to fight for victory due to Moritz Kretschy’s successful attack with four kilometres to go. The New Zealander then took twelfth place for the day, while Maxime Decomble moved back to ninth overall.
“I gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough,” Maxime Decomble
However, it was Sunday’s stage that was supposed to decide the overall standings, with the 4,000 metres of elevation gain on the day’s program to La Mure. “La Conti” team proved aggressive from the start, with Rémi Daumas attacking on the Col de Porte. “I had to go to the front and then try to help Maxime in the final,” he said. “He really did a great stage,” praised Jérôme. “He was in the first breakaway, then the second, and then the third”. After solving a difficult situation in the transition portion to the day’s second climb, the French development team managed to send back Rémi Daumas to the front. With fifty-five kilometres to go, he was then able to tackle the day’s major climb, the Col de Parquetout (7 km at 10%) with a two-minute lead over the peloton. Within the bunch, the big fight also started, and Maxime Decomble as well as Max Bock managed to follow the best climbers in a small group of five men, which no longer included the yellow jersey. At the summit, Rémi Daumas and his breakaway companions still had a twenty-second lead, but the two groups got back together a few kilometres further down.
The leading group was at that point made up of ten riders, including three from “La Conti.” “It wasn’t up to us to take responsibility because we weren’t the overall leader,” explained Rémi. “When I saw that they were looking at each other, I thought that I should try, and they let me go.” The 19-year-old managed to take a lead of one minute, which he maintained until the bottom of the final climb to La Mure (3 km at 9% then 2 km at 3.5%). “I believed I could make it, even if one minute on three such hard kilometers isn’t much considering all the efforts made beforehand,” he added. “I was struggling on the climb, but I didn’t miss much.” Because the fight for the overall also resumed behind him, and Maxime Decomble was the main architect. “Aubin Sparfel had a three-second lead over me in the GC, and some guys in front of me overall had also come back, so I had to try to drop them,” Maxime explained. “It kind of exploded from the bottom, then I felt like Aubin was a bit on the limit, so I attacked. I thought it was possible to drop them before the flat section with two kilometres to go, I gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough.” As a consequence, after the last difficult slopes, four men were able to catch Rémi Daumas. No one was able to break away from then on, and Sparfel then won the sprint. Maxime Decomble took fourth place, Rémi Daumas fifth, and Max Bock sixth.
“We rode a very good stage,” said Jérôme Gannat.
Overall, Maxime Decomble also moved up to second place. “Perhaps I should have let Sparfel do some work and then attacked him again, but I’m still very satisfied with this final podium, because we came with the goal of a top five,” said Maxime. “We don’t have a stage win, but we can be happy with the overall result. This week also shows that I’ve made good progress in the mountains. Rémi was very strong, as was Max, and that bodes well for the Giro NextGen.” “Of course we would have hoped for a different outcome in the final of this last stage,” said Jérôme. “There was a bit of confusion. As we often say, you shall always race to win. Sometimes you have to gamble with your opponents. That wasn’t the case enough on Sunday. This Alpes Isère Tour still ends on a high note because we rode a very good stage. We also put three riders in the top 10 overall, with Max in 5th and Rémi in 10th. There are certainly positives. We showed good level before the Giro NextGen. All the work we did beforehand has been effective. Over the next two weeks, the riders’ form should improve further, but the Giro is a different story!”
