L´Ain starts with an eleventh place from Oldani to the sprint and no problem for the Lopez options

31st Tour of l´Ain
Stage 1: Bourg-en-Bresse – Saint Vulbas (162.6 km)

The Kometa Cycling Team’s participation in the French Tour de l´Ain started this Friday with an eleventh place for the Italian Stefano Oldani on the finish line at Saint Vulbas. Stefan Bissegger, rider of the Swiss team competing in this race, became the first leader of the same. The Swiss rider negotiated the last roundabout before the finish line like no other.

There was no lack of escape attempts in this first fraction of the race, attempts which involved some of the riders of the Madrid formation, especially Daniel Viegas and Samuele Rubino. However, the day’s great breakaway, made up of two other Swiss riders, Simon Pellaud and Claudio Imhof, took some time to consolidate. The Kometa Cycling Team could not include any of its riders in the breakaway as happened on the inaugural day a year ago. His protagonist at the time, the Manchego Isaac Canton, had planned his participation also this year but finally caused sick leave at the last minute.

Consolidated in the head of the race the Swiss couple, always controlled by the teams with interests in a massive sprint, the runners led by Jesus Hernandez focused on keeping as protected as possible both the Sevillian Juan Pedro Lopez and the Italian Stefano Oldani. The Lebrija arrived in the pack head, a group where also came the Portuguese Daniel Viegas.

“Today was a quiet day. We tried to put Viegas and Rubino on the run and leave Antonio Puppio alone. It was a very fast day, very typical in France, the whole day rolling at full speed, no movement was worth it. We knew that whoever entered the last corner first had it easy to win. This Saturday there will be a purely mountain stage and we are going to see how Juan Pedro is doing, who is the rider with whom we came to do something nice”, comments Jesús Hernández, the director of the Madrid formation.

The Col de la Faucille, at 1,323 metres above sea level, awaits this Saturday the squad of the l´Ain Tour in what will be the first of the two days with a high finish proposed by the French race. It is not an especially long stage, 123.9 kilometres, but it does present a quite broken terrain with four other climbs that can be scored for the mountain Grand Prix.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)