Having finished the Giro d'Italia on a high with a strong showing on the Monte Zoncolan, Michael Rogers and Nicolas Roche are back in action in the Route du Sud which started today. By finishing in the top 10 on the first stage, they both proved that they are ready to support Alberto Contador in the Tour de France.

Stage one didn’t offer a gentle way into the French stage race, Route du Sud where 181 kilometers were on the menu spiced up with a steep uphill finish in Campan-Payolle where the big battle were to commence.

A breakaway of four riders dominated the first and flat part of the stage but as the terrain started rising, they were brought back. On the final climb, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Chris Juul-Jensen launched a promising attack and kept the pace high but Movistar’s Spanish national champion, Jesus Herrada took off from the bunch, passed Juul-Jensen with 1.2 kilometers to go and managed to stay away even though the Tinkoff-Saxo riders were pulling hard to bring him back.

When the bunch crossed the finish line a few seconds later, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicolas Roche finished fourth and Michael Rogers 6th:

“It was a hard first stage of the race but I’m happy to see Christopher trying to break away on the final part of the slope while the rest of the boys were waiting and waiting in the bunch ready to launch a counter-attack. Unfortunately, the slope wasn’t steep enough to explode the peloton completely but with Nico in 4th and Michael 6th position, we have a good chance of an overall good result in the race,” said DS Bruno Cenghialta.