After a solid opening time trial, stage 2 of the Tour du Pays Basque proved to be much painful on Tuesday for the two Groupama-FDJ’s leaders. Romain Grégoire indeed crashed on a descent just two kilometres from the finish, while being at the head of the peloton. Taken out of the fight for the stage victory, he was still given the same time as the winner and now sits 13th overall. David Gaudu also suffered a crash a few moments earlier, but due to a hand injury, he will not be able to start on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the riders were to take on the tortuous and hilly roads of the French Basque Country for the second stage of the… Spanish event. As soon as leaving Irun, the peloton crossed the border to reach Cambo-les-Bains, before completing a large loop in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. In total, one hundred and sixty kilometres were to be covered on this first road stage, but only one listed climb was on the day’s menu, right at the start. Alexis Vuillermoz, Enekoitz Azparren, Ivan Cobo, Jetse Bol and Xabier Azparren got away even before this difficulty, and the bunch kept them under four minutes the whole day. Their attack still lasted until the last twenty kilometres, while the peloton became more and more nervous. “We knew it was going to be tense given the profile,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “However, we did not expect the rain to come so early. The forecasts announced it for the end of the day. It made the race even more nervous.” A real battle for position took place in the last half hour of racing, while the breakaway was caught with thirteen kilometres to go.
“It’s a lot to take in”, Benoît Vaugrenard
The peloton got quite excited for the intermediate sprint located ten kilometres from the finish, then every team tried to position their leaders on the slight slopes after Espelette. Rémy Rochas, Reuben Thompson, Lorenzo Germani notably took command for Romain Grégoire and David Gaudu. “The guys did a great race, they were always in a good position, everything was going well until five kilometres… then bang!”, Benoît said. “There were crashes on the last downhill, and our two leaders were unfortunately involved. David was caught in the first one, four kilometres to go. He crashed, quickly got back on his bike, but the race was on and full gas. Romain slipped two kilometres from the finish, just at the bottom of the final uphill portion. He yet did everything right with Lorenzo as they were at the head of the pack. It’s really frustrating.” Romain Grégoire’s chances of victory vanished, and Lorenzo Germani (15th) was therefore the only member of the team to reach the finish in the first bunch. Romain Grégoire finished more than two minutes later, before he was given the same time as the winner Paul Lapeira.
As for David Gaudu, he lost 23 seconds on the line but more importantly any chance to continue racing this week. Due to a hand injury, the man from Brittany will unfortunately not be able to be at the start on Wednesday. “He didn’t realize how bad it was when he crashed, he only thought about coming back,” Benoît explained. “His hand is really in bad shape; he’s got ten stitches. He cannot brake or shift gears. Last night he wanted to continue but today the hand said no. It’s painful for him, he will have to keep on fighting, but for now luck is not on his side. This is another setback”. “David has significant wounds on his right hand, which required surgery late in the evening yesterday”, added the team’s doctor Jacky Maillot. “He will have to take a few days of rest and his program will be communicated later”. Romain Grégoire suffered a few scratches but will be at the start of the third stage. “There is nothing too serious, but it’s not ideal because we know that the Tour of the Basque Country is not easy even when you’re at 100%,” concluded Benoît. “We’ll keep on fighting for some goals, but it is a real blow because they did everything right once again, and we are not rewarded once again. Bad luck has been following us for several weeks. It’s a lot to take in and it’s not easy to swallow.”
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