Very small vintage at the top of Mont Brouilly.
With the possibility of seeing Saturday's queen stage between Nice and Auron in the Alpes-Maritimes truncated due to snowfall, the fourth stage this Wednesday between Chalon-sur-Saône and Mont Brouilly was supposed to set the tone for the favorites for the final victory.
Especially with Remco Evenepoel upset as hell about his defeat the day before during the team time trial due to the rain.
But in the end, the Beaujolais stage delivered a rather disappointing verdict.
The Colombian from Bahrain-Victorious, Santiago Buitrago, won ahead of the Australian Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) who consoles himself with the yellow jersey.
Evenepoel seemed very stingy with his efforts and only released the thrust that everyone was waiting for after the red flame.
He missed the yellow jersey that he hoped to wear at the start of Chalon-sur-Saône.
Even if the Belgian remains the favorite for the final victory, especially with the inability of Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) to follow him to the end.
The other major rider who we already know will not win Paris-Nice is called David Gaudu.
Second in the event last year, the little climber from Groupama-FDJ lost more than six minutes at the finish.
Caught in a fall while climbing the Col du Fût d'Avenas, taking Aurélien Paret-Peintre with him, Gaudu did not recover.
💥 🇫🇷@GauduDavid fell a little earlier, he is in a chasing group behind the peloton of favorites.
💥 🇫🇷 @GauduDavid crashed earlier and is now in a chasing group behind the pack of favorites.#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/lKxtiDYyFs
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 6, 2024
In front of his bus, with a closed face, he did not wish to speak and returned to his hotel in a team car.
Benoît Vaugrenard, his sports director, explained the circumstances of his accident: “David wanted to take off his jacket and it got caught in the handlebars,” he said.
He then fell to the ground and hit hard.
He was a little dazed because he took a hit to the helmet.
He also had pain in his right shoulder and didn't really know where he was.
He was really stunned because he wasn't expecting that at all.
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At that moment, the fate of his stage was decided.
“By the time we left, we had lost quite a few seconds,” continues Vaugrenard.
Even if at one point his group came back thirty seconds behind the peloton, it was over.
Plus, we found ourselves in a group of losers with guys who couldn't take it anymore.
Only Quentin Pacher was with David but that was too little.
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After the race, there was a little worry about the rest of the race for the Frenchman who would have to spend a lot of time in treatment.
“We will already see how he recovers from his shoulder pain after treatment,” notes his sports director.
He is disappointed because he had good legs.
This is actually the only positive point of this day.
But right now, there's not much going in the right direction.
The coin is not falling on the right side for him.
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