Edu Prades takes stage victory at La Ciotat; Gorka Izagirre moves into the lead
15th February, 2018 – La Ciotat, France: Movistar’s new signing, Eduard Prades, claimed Spain’s first-ever stage victory at the Tour de La Provence while his compatriot and national champion, Gorka Izagirre of Astana, moved into the lead thanks to the four seconds bonus awarded to the third-placed rider. That gave Izagirre two seconds of an advantage over home favorite Thibaut Pinot.
French riders upped the tempo on the steep Route des Crêtes overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with Direct Energie’s Lilian Calmejane taking the King of the Mountains jersey and Groupama-FDJ positioning their three climbers – Thibaut Pinot, Rudy Molard and best young rider David Gaudu – in the nine-man group that contested the stage victory in La Ciotat. Tony Gallopin of AG2R-La Mondiale launched the sprint but Prades’ top-end speed enabled him to claim his first victory for a World Tour team at the age of 31. Inaugural time-trial winner Filippo Ganna crossed the finishing line with a deficit of 1’27’’.
The photo finish
After the finish, stage winner Eduard Prades said: “I’m very happy. It’s something I dreamt about when I changed team. It’s impressive to achieve it only in my second race of the season [after the Santos Tour Down Under]. It’s a way to repay the team for the confidence they’ve shown in me. There were several riders of a high level in the front group but I knew that I could race for the win if I recovered well on the downhill; I could go for the stage win. I’m a versatile rider. I’m pretty fast and I go quite well over the climbs, so I’m a rider for one-day races and one-week stage races.”
The new GC leader Gorka Izagirre said: “It’s been a hard stage. For me it was the first racing day of this year. It’s been a very explosive finale. Towards the end, I almost crashed but I eventually came third and the time bonus puts me in the lead. I’m very happy with that. Now that I’m in the [multicolour] jersey, we’ll try to hold onto it but Groupama-FDJ has a very good team so we’ll have two very hard days ahead of us.”
Stage 2 photo gallery, Stage 2 winner’s audio file, Stage 2 results, race start list and race programme of the Tour de La Provence are available in the link below.
Statistic of the day
1: The number of Spanish stage wins at the Tour de La Provence in four editions of the event.
The stages:
Thursday 14 February: ITT at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, 8.9km
Friday 15 February: Istres to La Ciotat, 195.6km
Saturday 16 February: Aubagne to Circuit du Castellet, 185.8km
Sunday 17 February: Avignon to Aix-en-Provence, 173.3km
Il mondo del cilcismo locale e nazionale ha trovato una nuova e qualificata vetrina online. Si tratta del sito www.pedaletricolore.it, fondato e diretto da Vito Bernardi, giornalista pubblicista, conosciuto da tutti nell'ambiente delle due ruote. Nelle sue pagine, Bernardi raccoglie notizie, comunicati stampa, immagini di corse, atleti, società, dirigenti, e la più ampia informazione su quello che accade quotidianamente nell'Alto Milanese, ma anche a livello nazionale ed internazionale
