With a strong start list some of the best U25 climbers and Ardennes classics riders continued their season in France at the hilly Faun Ardeche Classic. After a hard effort on an 18 minute climb, Juan Ayuso won the reduced bunch sprint against his rivals.
Faun-Ardeche Classic was overshadowed by Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday but in the French 2. Pro race promising climbers like Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose, Igor Arrieta, Felix Gall lined up as well as veterans such as Michael Woods and Romain Bardet. With the parcours being full of longer climbs it was suited for GC riders who warm up before the European WorldTour stage races.
The Saint Romain de Lerps climb (6.3 km, 7.6%) usually is decisive in this race as it is almost 20 minutes long with a steep first two kilometres and is close to the finish. This year the organizers used the Les Arlettes side of the climb. Michael Woods spent 3061 kilojoules before the climb. 3:41 hours with 13,31 kj/kg/h. A medium intensity but nothing special for a one-day race.
Lidl-Trek was confident in their young leader Mattias Skjelmose as Quinn Simmons and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier paced the first part of the climb before the Dane attacked. Ghebreigzabhier extended his contract with Lidl-Trek very late at the start of the 2024 season and performed well to finish in the second group after giving all his energy before Skjelmose’s attack.
Juan Ayuso, Felix Gall and Romain Gregoire were the ones who could follow the acceleration with Ayuso later attacking and making Gall and others suffer badly. Gregoire was distanced after the Spaniard’s attack but paced himself back. Ayuso, Gall and Skjelmose all did 6.63 ᵉW/Kg for 17:33 min. Gregoire spent more in the draft and did 0.07 ᵉW/Kg less than the trio. It was surprising to see Gregoire performing at such a high level on an 18 minute climb. The young Frenchman is a punchy classics rider and has not previously performed on longer climbs such as Saint Romain de Lerps. In the Tour de Suisse he lost a minute to Skjelmose, Gall and Ayuso who all three finished in the top 3 on Villars-sur-Ollon climb, beating Remco Evenepoel. Gregoire has improved his climbing ability on longer climbs but he is unlikely to be a Grand Tour contender, being more in the shape of Julian Alaphilippe. Perhaps his teammate Lenny Martinez will be the young talented French rider destined to be a Tour de France GC rider.