Quinn Simmons was on the move from very early, the American champion forcing the winning breakaway clear and staying away for victory, with Dillon Corkery in the thick of it just behind (Photo: Gaëtan Flamme)
Dillon Corkery (Picnic PostNL) had his eyes fixed on a result on stage 4 at Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes (2.UWT) today, Wednesday, until a breakaway just about survived out front to fight for the spoils.
Still, while the Cork rider was undone by that outcome, he still got himself to the front of the peloton in the final and sprinted in for a top 20 placing.
The neo pro was 8th in the bunch kick, just four seconds behind 10 breakaway men. And if he can string together some more finishes like that - muscling his way to the front and having the legs to compete - some very tidy results can come his way before the season is out.
Indeed, he may pull something out of the bag by the end of the week, with tomorrow's stage in particular looking suited to the fast men.
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Dillon Corkery, far left, with his Picnic PostNL team mates before the start of today's stage 4 (Photo: Gaëtan Flamme)
Up front today, Quinn Simmons (Lidl Trek) won the day in the sprint from the breakaway; the American champion finally convert is all-out aggressive racing into a big win. That was his first victory since he won a stage of Tour de Suisse 12 months ago.
Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) pushed him very closely, but had to be content with 2nd place, with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) rounding out the podium on the day.
Simmons was one of the main aggressors on the 167.4km stage from Le Puy-en-Velay to Montrond-les-Bains, which featured six categorised climbs and over 2,000m of elevation gain.
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The American got clear on the Cote du Temple - a cat 3 some 67km into the stage - and was joined initially by Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) and Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility).
However, nine more got across to them, making for 12 up front, with the gap between the breakaway and chasing pack getting up over six minutes at one point.
However, the bunch soon for more organised and with 20km to go the breakaway men had just 40 seconds; Cofidis having done much of the chasing in a bid to set up sprinter Bryan Coquard.
But the escapees kept at it and though they had only 12 seconds with 1km to go they just about held on, by four seconds, to take the first 10 placings.
Behind them, Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) claimed the sprint for 11th place from Coquard and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain - Victorious), with Ireland's Corkery a few further places back.
The only other Irish rider in the race, Ben Healy, also finished in the bunch, having helped his EF Education-EasyPost team mate, Alex Baudin, retain the yellow jersey.
Tomorrow's stage 5 takes the riders some 196km from Saint-Chamond to Parc des Oiseaux Villars-les-Dombes. Though there are cat 4 climbs one after the other at the start and 2,200m of elevation gain through the day, the final 100km of the stage is flat and it may be another chance for Corkery.
