Andrea Pietrobon shines in the initial breakaway in Limousin and Rivi finishes 10th
Great day for EOLO KOMETA in the first stage of the Tour de Limousin, with a long breakaway of Andrea Pietrobon in which he fought for the KOM jersey and got the prize of the most aggressive rider. Samuele Rivi held on with the best in the bunch to finish 10th.
In the early km of the race, a break of three riders with Mirco Maestri seemed to open the way for the breakaway. However, interests from behind ended up neutralising the attempt, with Pietrobon responding quickly to filter into a group of five riders that would ride most of the day ahead.
Understanding, good pace on the always tricky French roads, and a gap that quickly climbed to 4 and a half minutes. The advantage, however, stabilised shortly afterwards at around 2 minutes, controlled by the teams of the favourites.
Andrea Pietrobon showed his power in the front group, scoring on the first mountain pass and managing to hold on (the only one of the breakaway members) in front of the bunch on the second of the climbs to take maximum points. It wasn’t enough to take the jersey, after being neutralised with just over 20 kilometres to go. The reward was the prize of the most aggressive rider that allowed him to be in the podium of the day.
Nerves and crashes behind, which affected Lonardi in the middle of the race, did not allow EOLO KOMETA to be in the fight for the stage. Gregoire (FDJ) won solo with Rivi as the best placed of the team, in a meritorious 10th position in the favourites group. With Pietro’s good performance, it’s time to think about the remaining three days to look for another outstanding result at the finish line.
Andrea Pietrobon: “I knew today was a good day for me in the breakaway. The course was tricky: narrow, with lots of turns and changes of pace. We were five riders ahead, but one of them gave up and we were four in the breakaway, which was a shame because we didn’t have the power to fight against the bunch. I tried to fight for the mountains jersey, it was a positive day and I hope we can continue like this for the rest of the stages”.
Stefano Zanatta: “It was a very fast stage, in which Maestri tried at the beginning but Pietrobon got into the breakaway. The group let him do it, they took time and in the last two KOM he tried to go away from the others to cross the top in first position. They managed to do so, although they were neutralised and of the four remaining riders of our team, only Rivi remained in front. At the finish line, he was able to get in to be 10th and we also took the most aggressive rider prize of Pietro, so the balance was good”.
