Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) blew off the Covid19 lock-down cobwebs yesterday with victory on stage 3 of La Route d’Occitanie, which was enough to secure him the overall lead.
The stage finished on the 11km Col de Beyrède after the riders had already raced over the Port de Balès and Col de Peyresoude.
While an early breakaway gained three minutes they proved no match for Team Ineos, who controlled the pace.
They upped the tempo on the final climb to whittle down the main field, with Chris Froome contributing to the pace-setting before losing five minutes.
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In the end it came down to Bernal and his team mate Pavel Sivakov who had only Astana's Russian Aleksandr Vlasov for company on the upper slopes of the climb having dropped everyone else.
And when Bernal attacked with just over 1km to go he rode away strongly to victory by 10 seconds from Sivakov with Vlasov a further seven seconds back.
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Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was next, in 4th place at 31 seconds, followed by Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), at 1:05, and Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) at 1:09.
Richie Porte placed 7th, the Trek-Segafredo man losing 1:11 to Bernal, with Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) in 8th at 1:18.
With Tuesday's final stage remaining, a flat stage with a 1.4km climb averaging 8.5 per cent at the finish, Bernal (23) leads overall by 14 seconds from Sivakov (23). Vlasov, the 24-year-old Russian champion, is 3rd at 23 seconds.
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