Eddie Dunbar's hopes of improving on his strong general classification placing at Tour de la Provence for the past two years suffered a set-back today when the Irish rider was on the wrong side of splits on the finale.
Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) was 7th overall in the race in 2019 and 6th last year but today took a 48-second hit in the opening stage of the race when the field split during the finale.
Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) also lost time but the the team road captain is in the race to guide its young riders and today was helping to look after the team's sprinter.
The stage was one in a bunch sprint by Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who pipped hot favouritie Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) on the line.
Italian Ballerini (26) demonstrated an incredible turn of speed and power to close a gap to Demare on the finishing straight and then get around him, with Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea Samsic) in 3rd.
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The stage was a very
lively affair, with an early breakaway going clear and being caught before a
really quality trio took flight from the bunch over the top of the penultimate climb,
the Montée du Brulat, with 70km
to go.
In that group was former
Giro king of the mountains Giulio Ciccone
(Trek-Segafredo), who attacked first, alongside Gianni Moscon (Ineos
Grenadiers) and world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step).
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The leading trio got
their lead out to well over a minute at one stage but as the finish neared it
looked like they would be caught.
Alaphilippe put in a dig
on a rise inside the final 5km and that saw Ciccone drift off the back, leaving
Alaphilippe and Moscon to battle on and survive until less than 2km to go.
When they were caught,
Alaphilippe took a place right at the front of the bunch to play his part in
the lead-out for Ballerini.
In the end the Italian sprinted in to Six-Fours-les-Plages
after 182km of racing at the head of a 57-rider group who all received
the same time.
After that reduced peloton came other
groups as the field was strung out due to the pace of the finale and also some
minor crash incidents.
Dunbar finished in a small group some 48
seconds back and Roche came home in a group just behind his compatriot, at
1:07.
The time loss is a blow
for Dunbar, though it appears his team is riding for Ivan Sosa so the Irishman
may be a little bit more limited this year in the race.
Tomorrow’s stage does
not feature any high mountains but the 175km race from Cassis
to Manosque is grippy, with a brace of small climbs in final 35km and an uphill
finish.
Tomorrow may see the field split on those short late climbs and Dunbar may have a chance to show himself; likewise on Saturday’s 154km stage 4 including the Mont Ventoux-Chalet Reynard finish.
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