Route d'Occitanie: Bernal hits hard less than a month before the Tour

2020-08-03T16:37:47.893Z

Egan Bernal (Ineos), the winner of the last Tour de France, made an impression by winning Monday in the queen stage connecting Saint-Gaudens (Hte-Garonne) to the Col de Beyrède (Htes-Pyrénées) with more than 30 seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), fourth.

The Colombian, returned to Europe in mid-July to refine his preparation in Andorra, and who had announced before the start of the event wanting to "have fun and build up to the Tour" hit hard and recalled that he would be well the main favorite to his own succession at the start of the next Big Loop.

Among the main favorites, who came to assess each other less than four weeks before the start of the Tour de France (August 29-September 20), it was he who made the best impression, finishing ten seconds ahead of his Franco-French teammate. Russian Pavel Sivakov and 17 seconds over Russian Alexandr Vlasov (Astana).

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Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Groupama), relegated to 31 seconds, limited the damage without being able to follow the Colombian climber. "I didn't miss much and I'm pretty happy, reassured," he said once the line was crossed. Among the other headliners, Warren Barguil (Arkea Samsic), the Australian Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) also finished in the Top 10 but more than a minute from the prodigy Colombian.

In this mountain stage punctuated by four passes - including three of 1st category - more than 4,000 meters of vertical drop and a final climb of 10.9 km (7.2% average), it is the Ineos team, impressive master's degree, which did most of the work. Faced with the power of the British team, the morning breakaway, led in particular by the French Lilian Calmejane (Total-Direct Energie) and Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) finally surrendered 10 km from the finish.

Froome more than five minutes

This is the moment that Bernal chose to wring his opponents, including his own teammate, the Briton Christopher Froome. Still uncertain of being selected for the next Big Loop, despite having won the event four times, Froome finished more than five minutes behind his young teammate and did not really reassure his team about his mountain skills. . The last stage of this Occitan route is scheduled for Tuesday between Lectoure (Gers) and Rocamadour (Lot). Egan Bernal should keep his orange leader's jersey there.