Tour de Provence: the layout of the test that Nairo can win

The double world champion, the French cyclist Julian Alaphilippe, of the Quick-Step, started the season last Thursday in the Tour de La Provence, where the Colombians Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), winner of the test in 2020, and Iván Sosa (Movistar), winner of the last edition, will be their main rivals.

The participation of the Colombian Egan Bernal, third in 2021, was also planned, but the serious fall suffered during a training session at the end of January has prevented him from doing so.

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To replace him, his formation, Ineos Grenadier, will be entrusted to Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, Olympic champion in road cycling and third in the last Tour de France, if he recovers from a fall that occurred on Friday during the Étoile de Bessèges dispute.

day to day

The race will end on Sunday with a climb to the top of Lure, which will consist of 13.4 kilometers and an average gradient of 6.7 percent. Alaphilippe acknowledged that he returns to competition strongly motivated, but at the same time pressured to wear the world champion jersey.

“During the preparation, I stopped running for a week and missed an important training session. I’ve been working well for 10 days, but I’m still behind,” Alaphilippe explained in a videoconference on Wednesday.

“The goal is to find the rhythm of the race and make efforts that we cannot reproduce in training,” said the runner.

After a flat 7.1km prologue along the Etang de Berre on Thursday, the riders will have to brave the wind on Friday’s stage in the Camargue.

On Saturday, the stage will end in mid-mountain, before closing on Sunday at the top of Lure (at 1,600 m high). Invited at the last minute, the world time trial champion, the Italian Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadier), will be the man to beat in Thursday’s prologue at the seventh edition of La Provence, just four days after triumphing in the ‘chrono’ of the Ètoile de Bessèges in Alès.

Stages:
Thursday: prologue Berre l’Etang – Berre l’Etang (7.1 km CLM)
Friday: Stage 1, Istres – Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (158.1 km)
Saturday: 2nd stage, Arles – Manosque (180.5 km)
Sunday: Stage 3, Manosque – Montaña de Lure (166.1 km)

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AFP