Eduardo Sepulveda may have been disqualified after two weeks of the Tour de France, but he capped off a fine season which has seen him finish fourth in San Luis, second in Turkey and fifth in the Route du Sud by taking out his second French one-day race of the season for Bretagne-Seche when he won the Tour du Doubs to go with his win in the Classic Sud Ardeche.
The Tour du Doubs is a hard, hilly race that is often decided between climbers, like 2014 winner Rein Taaramae, or puncheurs like 2011 winner Arthur Vichot. The race got underway and after 10km, there was an attack by Alo Jakin (Auber93), Julien Duval (Armée de Terre), Taruia Krainer (Europcar), Evaldas Siskevicius (Team Marseille) and Anthony Geslin (FDJ).
They gained around 15 seconds before being brought back, setting the scene for more attacks from Benoît Sinner (Armée de Terre), Martin Laas (Team Marseille 13-KTM) and Alvaro Robredo (Burgos BH), among others. FDJ crowded the front and brought that back.
However, this just led to a big group of 15 riders getting clear after 47km of the 177km race: Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Julien Guay (Auber93), Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne Séché), Arnaud Gérard (Bretagne Séché), Maxime Méderel (Europcar), Evaldas Siskevicius (Marseille 13-KTM), Rémy Di Grégorio (Marseille 13-KTM), Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix), Pierre Latour (AG2R), Elie Gesbert (FDJ), Tom Bohli (Suisse), Aritz Bagües (Murias), Garikoitz Bravo (Murias) and Kévin Ledanois (France).
Despite most of the big teams being represented, the move came back and another small group went clear: Rémy Di Grégorio (Marseille), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Frédéric Brun (Bretagne Séché), Jérôme Mainard (Armée de Terre), Fabian Lienhard (Suisse Espoirs, Steven Tronet (Auber93), Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne Séché), Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) et Thibault Ferasse (France Espoirs). They were joined by a few more riders and they brought their gap out to 40 secodns with just over 100km to go.
They worked well and extended the gap to 50 seconds at its peak, but once more, this time under the influence of Wallonie-Bruxelles, the move came back. Once more this served as a platform fro more attackers, including big favourite Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and a particularly active Ledanois.
This move came back and then the decisive move went clear, containing eleven riders: Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Pierre Gouault (Auber 93), Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Romain Combaud, Jérôme Mainard (Armée de Terre), Julien Loubet (Team Marseille 13-KTM), Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix-Lille Métropole), Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale), Alexandre Geniez (FDJ), Franck Bonnamour (France) and Tom Dernies (Wallonie-Bruxelles). At just 74 km to go, the group was 1:45 clear of a chase group that contained Romain Guillemois (Team Europcar), Fabian Lienhard (Suisse) and Edouard Lauber (France). The peloton was sitting at 3:40.
The eleven worked really well together, but the chase group did amazingly well to bridge the gap, making the group 14 strong with just 60km to go. The gap was getting dangerously high at 4:40 and this prompted on-form climber Alexandre Geniz (FDJ) to attack from the bunch. He was soon joined by Peraud but despite chasing for a long time, the gap grew to 5 minutes before stabilizing at 4:30. With 25km to go.
Now the break looked safe to take the win, cat and mouse began to take place and the first man to blink and attack was Guillemois. He was joined by Gouault and they had a gap of around 100m. they were brought back and a few other attacks went, with nothing sticking. With under 10km to go, Combaud was next and he was soon joined by Molard, Gouault and Sepulveda. As they arrived at the foot as the last passage of the Larmont climb, Sepulveda attacked at just over 5km to go.
Meanwhile, Loubet bridged to the chasers as Gouault was dropped, but they were still 20 seconds down on the Argentine with 2km to go. The gap grew to 29 seconds as Sepulveda soloed home to win his second race of the year. Meanwhile Antomarchi made it to the chasers, but was last in the sprint as Loubet beat Molard for second.
Florian BRUGGER 43 years | today |
Richard LANY 33 years | today |
Martin MARTINEZ 40 years | today |
Shalymbek BARAEV 46 years | today |
Dillon CALDWELL 35 years | today |
© CyclingQuotes.com