Every opportunity is worth taking. Although the first road stage of the Tour Down Under did not appear to be the most suitable to start moving up on the general classification, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet still made the most of it on Wednesday, picking up six seconds. The rider from Normandy was part of the breakaway alongside Enzo Paleni and claimed two of the day’s three intermediate sprints. He now sits 23 seconds behind leader Tobias Lund Andresen.
The day after the opening prologue in the streets of Adelaide, the Tour Down Under peloton tackled the shortest stage of the week on Wednesday around Tanunda. Just 120 kilometres were on the menu, with no significant climbs to overcome. Yet, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet quickly made his intentions clear by joining the very first breakaway attempt. “We knew the stage and its potential dangers,” explained Jussi Veikkanen. “We also knew that some riders had managed to move up in the general classification thanks to bonus seconds in the past. Despite yesterday’s setback, we didn’t give up. This morning, the message was to keep fighting. The first intermediate sprint was located after ten kilometres; Guillaume tried with a rider from Uno-X, but the peloton didn’t let it go. After the first sprint, the same Uno-X rider attacked again, then Enzo and Guillaume went across to him. The goal, by sending two riders up the road, was to make sure Guillaume didn’t waste too much energy, as we have a big day coming tomorrow.”
“We’ll have a clearer picture tomorrow,” Jussi Veikkanen
After twenty kilometres of racing, a trio formed featuring the Groupama-FDJ United leader, his young teammate Enzo Paleni, and Norwegian rider Martin Urianstad Bugge. “The gap never went beyond the three-minute mark, but the positive point is that Guillaume won the next two intermediate sprints and collected six bonus seconds,” Jussi added. “There was good cooperation in the break.” With twenty kilometres to go, just after the final intermediate sprint, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet eventually sat up and returned to the peloton. Enzo Paleni initially continued the effort with the Scandinavian rider, then rode solo from twelve to seven kilometres to go. The expected bunch sprint then took place in Tanunda, where Tobias Lund Andresen took the victory. “We don’t have a real lead-out train here,” Jussi pointed out. “We try to do the best we can, but this was a finish for the pure sprinters”. Lewis Bower (18th) and Tom Donnenwirth (20th) therefore finished a bit further back, away from the fight for the win.In the general classification, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet moved up 28 places on Wednesday and is now 23 seconds behind new leader Andresen. “We’ll see tomorrow whether today’s strategy paid off, but above all it shows that the week isn’t over despite yesterday’s underperformance,” Jussi concluded. “We’ll have a clearer picture tomorrow with the double ascent of Corkscrew. We did a recon of the course and know what’s coming.”
