Tour de l'Ain (st. 4)
Catalan climber completes courageous four-day performance at Tour de l'Ain in 10th place overall, always with the favourites through grueling last stage to Belley. Sam Oomen (TGA) claims final yellow in first French race in August for Blues; Limousin to follow from next Tuesday
The Movistar Team closed their participation in the Tour de l’Ain with a good display from Antonio Pedrero. The Catalan, already at the fore during yesterday’s queen stage, shone again today at the Grand Colombier (HC), the main ascent in a short (132.2km), nervous trek between Lagnieu and Belley. After getting through La Rochette (Cat-2) into the yellow jersey group, Pedrero launched his first move with 5km from the top of the last climb, and caught soon after, he tried his way across again with 10km remaining.
8 kilometers from the finish, the man from Terrassa caught Wyss (BMC) and Monfort (LTS) to get to the lead of the course. The trio was only caught into the final straight, as the group surrounding GC leader Sam Oomen (TGA) reached down Pedrero’s adventure to contest what ended up being a tumultuous sprint. Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) narrowly won, with Antonio in tenth spot, as Oomen secured his GC victory, Pedrero in 10th at 52 seconds.
The first stop of the Blues’ journey through France in August also saw today some early moves from Jorge Arcas, always helping his team-mates out, as well as Marc Soler, who tried to get into the main breakaway. In turn, the Tour de l’Ain also brought Richard Carapaz some racing form useful to keep the pace of the Laguía-led group’s orders. The Spanish team will head tomorrow to the Limousin, where the 49th edition of the region’s Tour will see Jesús Herrada coming back for glory neglected in 2015 with his 2nd spot overall.