Piganzoli solo delivers Visma Lease a Bike stage and overall victory at Route d'Occitanie

Davide Piganzoli won the third and final stage of the Route d'Occitanie. The Italian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike struck in the queen stage and rode solo for nearly forty kilometers to claim his first victory for the Dutch team. This also secured him the overall victory. It was also thanks in part to the outstanding work of his teammate Tijmen Graat.

What a day we were treated to in France! After two sprint opportunities (won by Thibaud Gruel and Unibet Rose Rockets sprinter Ronan Augé), the final stage belonged to the climbers. With climbs like the Hourcette d'Ancizan and the Col de Val Louron-Azet, it was set to be an incredibly grueling test, with nearly 3,500 meters of elevation gain.

The start was fairly flat, which gave the breakaway riders a chance to pull away. Seven riders took advantage of this: King of the Mountains Théo Delacroix (St Michel - Preference Home) was among them, as were Tom Donnenwirth (Groupama-FDJ), Valentin Retailleau (TotalEnergies), Victor Vidal (Equipo Kern Pharma), Arnaud Tendon (Van Rysel Roubaix), and the duo from Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur, Laurens Huys and Carter Guichard.

Nahom Efriem (BIKE AID) was also there, but when the road started to climb, he had to drop back. From Bagnères-de-Bigorre, the road would climb steadily toward the Hourcette d'Ancizan. The group of seven held a relatively small lead there. That lead quickly disappeared, thanks to the efforts of Visma | Lease a Bike and St Michel - Preference Home, after Delacroix had already caught up.

That’s how the last breakaway riders were caught. The peloton had remained quite large on the not-too-steep Hourcette d’Ancizan. A minor crash occurred just before the Col de Val Louron Azet, involving Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost), among others. He had to catch up while the pace remained very high. Visma | Lease a Bike took charge with Tim Rex and Tijmen Graat.

Once they had done their job, team leader Davide Piganzoli made his move. The Italian was the top favorite and set off on an adventure. He didn’t pull away from the chasers—among whom Cofidis riders Simon Carr and Jamie Meehan were doing the work—by a significant margin. They were joined by Jokin Murguialday (Euskaltel-Euskadi), the Equipo Kern Pharma duo of Urko Berrade and Ibon Ruiz, as well as the still-strong Graat.

But it turned out that Piganzoli hadn’t gone all out during his sprint. Slowly but surely, he gained more and more time. The young Italian climbed superbly and had a full minute on his pursuers at the summit. But a major effort still lay ahead of him: after the descent, he still had to survive twenty kilometers on his own over rugged terrain.

A large chase group would be an advantage. With the return of Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Lukas Nerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost), Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies), and Eric Fagúndez (Burgos Burpellet BH), the group received even more reinforcements. 1.20 minutes over 20 kilometers: it seemed like a lot, but it wasn’t impossible. However, the teamwork was lacking, so the chasers went on the attack. Graat played an important role there.

The Dutch climber did a lot to neutralize the situation, but couldn’t prevent Izagirre and Ruiz from breaking away. However, they were unable to close the gap on Piganzoli. In fact, the pair didn’t get any closer. The group behind them only lost more and more time. The Italian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike thus won his first race in the yellow-and-black jersey, with a comfortable lead: Ruiz finished second, ahead of Izagirre.