EF's Baudin surprises favourites with long-range Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stage win

The opening stage of the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes was won by Alex Baudin. The Frenchman from EF Education-EasyPost escaped from the early breakaway and comfortably kept the peloton containing the favourites behind him. The big names were not in the mood for a battle yet, although a group of outsiders did still ride clear in the finale, which could matter a great deal for the general classification.

The Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné, promised an open fight. Superstars Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard were not there, but names such as Isaac Del Toro, João Almeida, Paul Seixas, Matteo Jorgenson and Juan Ayuso were. And on day one, there was immediately a hard stage on the menu, with more than 3,000 metres of climbing.

So it could already explode straight away. The attackers also sensed their chance, as became clear during the first hour of racing. It soon became hilly, but the pace remained very high. A strong breakaway emerged from the difficult opening phase, including Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Georg Zimmermann (Lotto-Intermarché), Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) and George Bennett (NSN).

There were nine riders in total. They were not given too much leeway by the peloton, as Netcompany INEOS and Decathlon CMA CGM did the heavy work. The Côte de Quaix-en-Chartreuse marked the start of the finale, some fifty kilometres from the finish. There the break still had about two minutes on the bunch, and that was where the break also began to split apart.

Baudin and Bennett proved to be the strongest climbers, along with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ). They rode away from their fellow escapees, but the peloton was already not far behind. On the next climb, the Col de Vence, Vercher had to let go, but we also saw Almeida drop from the peloton. The Portuguese rider had not raced since March and was clearly not in top form.

On the final climb, Baudin went solo, but the peloton was only thirty seconds behind. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had taken over at the front and were driving the pace. At that point, Jordan Jegat, the overall leader from TotalEnergies, suffered a puncture. He could not make it back. Baudin was meanwhile half a minute further up the road: the peloton still had no intention of really getting moving.

Even so, big names were going out the back door. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Daniel Felipe Martinez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)... they all had to let go. It was indeed hard, but not hard enough. Baudin came over the top with a lead of more than a minute. The favourites sat still, and so there was no war.

Kevin Vermaerke did launch a move from the bunch. The American from UAE Team Emirates-XRG was given the green light by team leader Del Toro. Del Toro then single-handedly neutralised attacks from Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) and Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). That kicked off a good phase of racing.

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), for example, also joined the fight, but nobody really got away. Vermaerke was still in pursuit, but was in fact not closing in at all on Baudin. By then the Frenchman had already started the descent in earnest. Nothing seemed able to stop him taking the win.

On the flat run-in to the finish, there were still attacks from the peloton. A group including Kévin Vauquelin, Oscar Onley (Netcompany INEOS) and Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) rode clear and closed the gap, but they kept hesitating. That proved fatal, because Baudin stayed clear in the tricky final kilometres. The chasers, with Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM) finishing second and third, gained about thirteen seconds on the other favourites.