Ok, so we’re not going to create a race thread for ALL races this year, especially since we’re only about 10 people reading here :)
This thread is available for you to write about all the races which don’t have a race thread.
Ok, so we’re not going to create a race thread for ALL races this year, especially since we’re only about 10 people reading here :)
This thread is available for you to write about all the races which don’t have a race thread.
Stage 3 (supposedly the queen stage)
Pierre-Henry Basset (🇫🇷 Astana devo) was the last survivor of a breakaway of a dozen riders (which included Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) of course). In the Suc-au-May climb, he was joined midway by a Lotto rider the name of which escapes me now, as this Lotto rider crashed at the end of the descent by going a bit too wide in the gravel at the exit of a curve/crossing. No serious consequence for him, but his transmission was fucked.
In the peloton, apart this Lotto guy, none of the leader moved, expect for a 33 metres long attack by Aranburu (🇪🇸 Cofidis) somewhere like 1 km from the top perhaps. There was no attack at or right after the summit either. Everyone looked happy to let Costiou (🇫🇷 FDJ) win the GC.
Later, there were several attacks. The most notable was perhaps one with 3 riders including the Yellow jersey Costiou🇫🇷, especially after they were joined by 2 extra FDJ riders who had managed to break away behind them without carrying anyone else with them. FDJ looked much stronger today than on the other days. Unfortunately, FDJ played it very conservatively, their 3 riders were not willing to catch the lone breakawayman not do any effort, probably fearing to lose time bonuses at the end, so that group was caught up. Such conservative attitudes already plagued stage #2.
Pierre-Henry Basset🇫🇷 wasn’t caught before the flamme rouge, congratulation to him! Aebersold (🇨🇭 Elite Fond.) had failed to catch him in spite of a good attack from the front group.
As pace was slowing down one more time, a guy from Baloise Verzekeringen - Het Poetsbureau Lions attacked, coming in overspeed from behind the group, and gained a few metres. Mariault (🇫🇷 CIC) joined him but couldn’t overtake him in the end. It turned out it was the same Baloise rider I mentioned after stage #1: the young Daan Depuydt🇧🇪!! That was unexpected.
But ‘top’ French riders were busy looking at each other’s butt once again, so congratulations to him too.
Oh, and Pierre-Henry Basset🇫🇷 managed to stay well inside the front group and thus finished in the winner’s time! This allows him to jump to 10th place in GC.
Veistroffer🇫🇷 now is 20 points ahead of T. Delacroix (🇫🇷 St-Michel) in the Mountain classification. A max of 20 points can be grabbed tomorrow. I expect to see Veistroffer🇫🇷 or his teammates try to go and grab the points of the first climb tomorrow, to be safe.
So far, this 2026 race has been very Coupe-de-France-y. A timid attitude for 5/6th of the race; followed by attacks over the last 20-30 km, none of them making a real difference because they are not pushed on, because nobody wants to make more effort than their neighbour, which generally means it ends with a sprint of a small/medium/large group on a uphill false-flat or a a couple hundred yards after a hill.
The level is very weak. It could be expected from the startlist although PCS’ “startlist quality” doesn’t often reflect the truth of the moment, but the actual race demonstrates it even more.
The young Belgian from the Baloise Conti was second on the sprint stage, and now wins what was supposed to be the queen stage (therefore for a different kind of rider in theory)… He even had a teammate in the front group; in fact the first 2 riders today are Conti riders and there were no less than 10 Conti + 1 Club +1 Trainee riders in the front group of 26 riders: half of it! Yes, E. Jacquelin (🇫🇷 Decathlon) got in that group too: he struggles less on this race than on the couple of amateur races he attempted to race just before the Polynormande!
So, the difference in level between Conti/amateurs and the teams brought here by WorldTeams and ProTeams is small to start with, and the extremely conservative attitudes of leaders completely level off this small difference.