After an important day of racing in Australia for Groupama-FDJ, their fortunes continued in Europe as Kevin Geniets outsprinted Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Staff) to win the GP La Marseillaise and take his first professional win outdoors of the Luxembourg nationwide championships.Â
Geniets saved calm after Baudin pressured him into pole place for the two-up dash, with third-place Kévin Vaquelin (Arkéa – B&B Lodges) closing in on the duo, however the larger man’s kick was too highly effective and allowed him to make it one win from one look in 2024.
Baudin was the strongest climber on the day after dropping Geniets and his teammate Rémy Rochas on the Route des Crêtes. (4.1 km at 7.6%), however the rider from Luxembourg stayed shut and obtained again on earlier than the descent with 28km left within the day.
They shared the work on the scenic downhill run into the historic French metropolis till their last kilometre of making an attempt to outfox one another, however the work was performed with Vaquelin, regardless of his time trial energy, and the remaining chasers unable to shut the deficit.Â
Geniets’ victory within the first French Highway Biking Cup race of 2024 gave him the general lead within the competitors which was final yr gained by his teammate Paul Penhoët.
Because the peloton left Marseille with 167.5km between them and the end, the assaults began to fly for these determined to get within the break. A bunch of 5 riders would make it stick after round 30km of racing, Hugo Toumire (Cofidis), Jelle Vermoote (Bingoal WB), Alex Colman (Staff Flanders-Baloise), Théo Delacroix (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) and Jean-Louis Le Ny (Good Métropole Côte d’Azur) who joined the quarter final.
Their hole would develop out previous the three-minute mark till the chase behind started to warmth up inside the ultimate 100km, led by the French WorldTour groups Arkéa-B&B Lodges and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Staff.
With the Route des Crêtes. (4.1 km at 7.6%) approaching, the combat for place started on the downhill run that preceded it, and among the many stress got here a nasty-looking crash involving Milan Menten (Lotto Dstny) and Stefano Oldani (Cofidis), however fortunately neither went over the railings near the place they hit the deck.  Â
The assaults began 32km from the road with the leaders operating out of steam, and it was Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Staff) who made the distinction alongside the Groupama-FDJ duo of Kevin Geniets and Rémy Rochas after the latter lit up the racing.
Baudin was the strongest on the uphill, dropping Rochas and seemingly Geniets together with him, however the Luxembourger had sufficient to catch again on as they began the descent off the Route des Crêtes.
Behind, the second group on the street discovered it exhausting to organise any type of concerted chase to deliver again the main duo with 14km remaining, prompting Vaquelin to assault alone seeking a podium place, or higher – the win.
The Arkea rider struggled to make a lot of a dent into the duo’s now 50-second lead, bringing it right down to 22 seconds with 3.5km left to race, however he would want them to take a look at one another if he was going to problem the victory into Marseille.Â
Baudin performed it completely because the smaller determine and certain slower sprinter, ensuring Geniets led out the sprint-Ã -deux. Geniets appeared for his fellow escapee to take a last pull on the entrance with none response, however he saved calm and launched his explosive dash on the right second with Baudin unable to get again onto his wheel within the run to the road.Â
The Groupama-FDJ man roared throughout the road along with his first victory in 2024 in hand, including to the French facet’s success on the Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race by Laurence Pithie on the opposite facet of the world.Â
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