Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) won the first stage of the Tour de Switzerland and at the same time, the yellow jersey. He is ahead of Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B & B Hotels).
Between the victory of Lenny Martinez over the Critérium, that of Paul Magnier on Elfstedenronde and therefore Romain Grégoire in Switzerland, the French were in the spotlight this Sunday. The conditions were not the same between the Mont-Cenis plateau and the streets of Küssnacht. Grégoire offered a breakaway to the Michaelskruz descent, 12 kilometers from the finish.
Despite the roads full of water, the runner of the Groupama-FDJ formation took 20 seconds ahead of his three pursuers. Among them, we found Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B & B Hotels), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Bart Lemmen (Visma-lease a Bike). However, the Blues did not carry out the hat -trick on arrival. Indeed, the Dutchman has mounted on the podium in front of Alaphilippe.
The French in good shape
The fourteent has extricated a group of around twenty runners 70 km from the finish. The pursuers collaborated, but Grégoire was much stronger this Sunday. “We were almost at the same level, and I made the difference in the technical part,” confided the winner of the day after his success.
Beyond its success, Grégoire undermines favorites from the first day. Ben O’Conor (Jayco Alula) points to more than a minute (1’07 “), João Almeida (Uae Team Emirates) and Felix Gall (Decathlon Ag2R) are 3’12”. The Blues will have shone and the Alaphilippe will have made a successful return. Back in competition, the Frenchman achieved a good performance, the best since his arrival at the Tudor training.
