Matteo Jorgenson sprinted solo through the uphill finish at Perreux to secure victory for Visma-Lease a Bike at the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes stage three team time trial.
It saw the Dutch team place 10 seconds ahead of Netcompany-Ineos, who suffered a dropped chain with Oscar Onley that may well have proved crucial in the final reckoning.
EF Education-EasyPost were third, with their French rider Alex Beaudin clinging onto the leader’s yellow jersey by 12 seconds after a gutsy solo assault on the finishing climb.
Afterwards Jorgenson declared it “seven times better than winning on your own”. “Because you get the moment afterwards together, which in cycling you don’t often get. It’s a really cool discipline,” he said, “and a really nice day.”
“It didn’t really go as planned at all,” Jorgenson said. “We lost Wout [van Aert] really early, he wasn’t feeling super. And then Ben flatted and almost crashed on the main descent of the day so that was a hairy moment. I think we adapted well to the situation and we rearranged things and readjusted.
“Honestly I think the last 10K downhill we couldn’t have gone any faster – Bruno [Armirail], Edo [Affini], Per [Strand Hagenes], were all incredibly strong and I was given a free ride to the last climb.”
A victim of a collarbone-breaking crash at Amstel Gold in April, Jorgenson said it was great to be “back on top” and that the performance boded well for the rest of the race, which finishes on Sunday 14 June.
“It feels good to win a race. It’s really nice after the spring I’ve had to come back and be on top again… I’m super happy to be part of this team and take this win together,” he said.
More to follow…
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