Photo Credit: Cor Vos
The final stage of racing at the Tour de La Provence saw the peloton come out flying as they left the start town of Avignon, with an early intermediate sprint tempting numerous attacks from the bunch. The team were incredibly active, following a lot of dangerous moves with Romain Combaud in a notable group that was brought back. On passing through the intermediate sprint the elastic finally snapped, with Team DSM debutant Andreas Leknessund riding strongly to make a break of four.
The quartet worked well together over the rolling terrain, building up an advantage of over four minutes, before the peloton started to slowly reel them back in throughout the afternoon. Holding off the peloton for a while, Mas attacked from the breakaway group with around 20 kilometres to go but Leknessund showed his strength and alongside Gallopin and Laveneau they were able to bring him back. The four then cooperated again, with Leknessund impressing after being the last rider caught in the closing three kilometres.
Meanwhile back in the bunch, the rest of the team worked well to bring sprinter Max Kanter towards the front of the peloton for the fast finish once the race entered the final ten kilometres. Unfortunately on the technical and hectic run in, Kanter lost the wheels of the sprinters and wasn’t able to compete for a top result come the end of the stage, but the team can be applauded for the commitment and good teamwork towards their goals in their first race of the season.
Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BAUHAUS Phil | Bahrain - Victorious | 3:47:01 | 20 |
2 | BALLERINI Davide | Deceuninck - Quick Step | ,, | 10 |
3 | BOUHANNI Nacer | Team Arkéa Samsic | ,, | 5 |
27 | KANTER Max | Team DSM | ,, | - |
35 | LEKNESSUND Andreas | Team DSM | ,, | - |
48 | SÜTTERLIN Jasha | Team DSM | ,, | - |
75 | COMBAUD Romain | Team DSM | ,, | - |
88 | DONOVAN Mark | Team DSM | ,, | - |
129 | ROCHE Nicolas | Team DSM | 0:51 | - |
132 | MÄRKL Niklas | Team DSM | 3:13 | - |