Visma | LaB spices up the first stage of the Tour de l'Ain, but Donnenwirth wins ahead of Gaudu

With three days of racing in the foothills of the Alps, the Tour de l'Ain is now a regular event in the busy summer cycling calendar. Until 2019, this race was held in May, but it has now been moved to after the Tour de France. That could be a disadvantage, but this year there are no complaints about the start list, which is full of impressive names.

With men such as Cian Uijtdebroeks, Ben Tullet, Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Tour winner Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) at the start, it was set to be a great race. It started with a challenging ride: the first stage was flat, except for the Col de Portes, a 14.6-kilometer climb about 27 kilometers from the finish.

The flat course meant that there was not much enthusiasm for a breakaway. Eventually, three brave men took the plunge: Kenny Molly (Van Rysel Roubaix) was joined by Yoel Habteab (BIKE AID) and Julian Boresch (REMBE | rad-net). Visma | Lease a Bike was therefore able to keep control at a low level.

In the run-up to and on the final climb, the pace picked up considerably, allowing the leaders to be caught very quickly. Jegat lost ground on the climb but was able to rejoin the peloton. Visma | Lease a Bike pushed hard, and the pack thinned out very quickly. With just over 33 kilometers to go, Tulett opened the final.

The Brit accelerated strongly and took Prodhomme and Uijtdebroeks with him. The trio had a nice gap, but the Decathlon AG2R rider initially did not want to cooperate in the two-against-one situation. Nevertheless, the Frenchman did some short turns at the front, hoping to stay away.

Uijtdebroeks then accelerated, but Prodhomme was able to keep up with the Belgian. Not much later, Tulett also returned. This meant that the trio came together at the top, after which the question was: what now? Due to the poor cooperation at the front, the gap had only decreased, and so we suddenly saw Decathlon AG2R rider Andrea Vendrame join the front group on the descent.

Nevertheless, after the descent, everything was back together again. Well, everything... At the front, we had about thirty riders, including the most important names. Reason enough for Oliver Mattheis to accelerate. The German from BIKE AID took off on the flat final kilometers and quickly built up a lead of about twenty seconds.

However, with only 2 kilometers to go, it was all over for Mattheis, leaving us with a group of about thirty riders sprinting for the first leader's jersey. Groupama-FDJ bravely took the lead in the final phase and did not give it up. Donnenwirth would eventually win, with Gaudu taking second place.