The 39th edition of the Route du Sud rolled out from Lourdes, with a long stage of 204 kilometers, that was animated by a group of four: Daniel Martinez (Colombia-Coldeportes), Cedric Pineau (FDJ), Beñat Txoporena (Murias Taldea) and Hector Saez Benito (Caja Rural). The breakaway put a gap of more than three minutes between them and the peloton led by Tinkoff-Saxo, with Daniel Martinez being the most active at the front, as he took the first categorized climb of the day, before attacking from the escape and going solo.

Thanks to this move, the 19-year-old – who is riding his fourth stage race of the season – passed first on the last ascent and made sure he’ll get the mountains jersey at the end of the day. Then, after he was reeled in with around 12 kilometers to go, a group of five broke clear from the bunch: Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia-Coldeportes), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Karel Hnik (Cult Energy) and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis).

They had a maximum gap of 20 seconds, but eventually got caught with less than two kilometers left until the finish in Auch, as the sprinters’ teams prepared for the last 800 meters, which had a 5% average gradient. The sprint was a chaotic one and Auber’s Steven Tronet took advantage of this, winning the stage and getting the leader’s jersey. Best placed rider of Colombia-Coldeportes was Edwin Avila – the two-time points race world champion – who came home 9th, three seconds behind the Frenchman.

"I managed my efforts well and I attacked at the right time on the second climb to take the jersey. The sensations were good today. I trained well in Colombia. I am very glad I took the polka dot jersey, especially in a race of this magnitude. I will do everything I can to defend it to the end," Martinez told Directvelo.
 

Stage two of the race starts in Auch and ends in Saint-Gaudens after 141 kilometers. The peloton will face a rolling terrain with two category three climbs, but the victory should be decided in a bunch sprint.

Slow start in Slovenia

The 22nd Tour de Slovénie started in the evening with the traditional 8,8-km long prologue around the streets of the country’s capital Ljubljana. So, before getting to test themselves on the mountains of the Slovenian race, the riders of Team Colombia-Coldeportes began their campaign in a discipline that, by tradition, is not suited to the South American climbers.

Artem Ovechkin (RusVelo) won the prologue and took the first leader’s jersey in the general classification, after stopping the clock in 10:22. The Russian rider was only 41 hundreds of a second faster than Salvatore Puccio (Team Sky), while Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) completed the podium with a time of 10:24.

Brayan Ramirez was the fastest rider of the eight-man squad led by Oscar Pellicioli and Marco Corti in this first test of the race: the 22-year-old from Bogota came 46th, 0:23 behind the winner.

Tomorrow  the Escarabajos will face the first stage in line, from Skofja Loka to Kocejve (182 kilometers).