Cycling: Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) has won the first stage of the Tour de la Provence. The 25-year-old Frenchman was unbeatable in the bunch sprint in Istres. However, with no time credits at the Tour de la Provence, Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) remains in the lead in the overall standings.
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Laporte by far the fastest
Two category four climbs were on the program today. La Côte des Termes was tackled just 15 kilometers after the start, and La Sommet des Antiques 34 kilometers from the finish. Neither climb had any impact on the day's outcome. After Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) celebrated his second victory of the season in yesterday's prologue , Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) achieved the same feat today. After the 165,9 kilometers from Aubagne to Istres, he was able to celebrate early, winning by several bike lengths over Belgian Eduard Michael Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Europa Ovini) and Frenchman Pierre Barbier (Roubaix Lille Métropole).
Christophe Laporte:
"The team did a great job for me. I felt really good and didn't turn around."
¡Victoria de Christophe Laporte! At the beginning of the year for the @TeamCOFIDIS , it was much better than the rest in the sprint. #TDLP2018 pic.twitter.com/39scZiEfZP
— Alpe d'Huez B&T (@Alpe__dHuez) February 9, 2018
Team Lotto Kern-Haus is active
The German Continental team Lotto Kern-Haus was very active on today's stage. Two German professionals, Joshua Huppertz and Robert Kessler, attempted a breakaway. However, this didn't result in the day's main escape group, which only formed later in the race. It was finally caught eight kilometers from the finish. Velomotion editor Florian Nowak (Lotto Kern-Haus) finished with the peloton and is reporting live from the course about his experiences at the Tour de la Provence.
“After a whopping 11 neutral kilometers we finally got off to a sharp start. It looked very promising for us as we had two people in the group of the day in Robert Kessler and Joshua Huppertz. Unfortunately, the pace was so fast at the beginning on the slightly uphill stretch that the group couldn't really break away and our boys came back. When the group (without us) was standing, the race was first controlled by the big teams until about 40 km before the finish line, the last mountain classification of the day. That was the start of the final. We were able to find each other very well before the mountain and drove extremely compact as a team right up to the last few kilometers, which is pretty positive. As expected, the final was pretty fast, and even if the fine-tuning in the sprint wasn't right, we can be quite satisfied with 21st place for Robert Kessler.
Tomorrow it will be really tough because the mountain stage is on the agenda. The first difficulty will come right after the start with a 5 km climb. You have to go really deep first. In the final you will see what the legs can do. The 2x 10 km climb will definitely not be easy. You'll hear from me by tomorrow."
🇫🇷 @LAPORTEChristop of 🇫🇷 @TeamCOFIDIS wins stage 1 of 🇫🇷 #TourLaProvence #TDLP2018 https://t.co/FXFSWnW9Qv pic.twitter.com/pqkGdeEqWN
— World Cycling Stats (@wcstats) February 9, 2018