Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r) joined forces in the queen stage of the Tour de l'Ain when they distanced their rivals on the race's landmark climb, Col du Grand Colombier. Working together to put time into their chasers, they shared the spoils with Poels taking the stage win and Bardet the overall victory while overnight leader Tom-Jelte Slagter (Belking) struggled and dropped to 9th.

Belkin had a fantastic day yesterday as they won the stage and took the overall lead in both the Tour de l'Ain and the Eneco Tour but today was a black day for the Dutch team. While Mark Renshaw lost the lead in Belgium due to a puncture, Tom-Jelte Slagter suffered on the Col de Grand Colombier in the queen stage of the Tour de l'Ain and fell off the overall podium.

The man to take over his position on the top step was young French talent Romain Bardet who left the yellow jersey group behind on the day's major climb and bridged across to a select lead group which contained Wout Poels and his teammate Hubert Dupont. Using up his teammate's energy, the Frenchman managed to build up a big gap over his chasers and it was only natural for Poels to take the stage win while Bardet took the first big stage race win of his career.

Luis-Leon Sanchez did his best to save the day for Belkin, having started the day 2nd overall behind his teammate Slagter. However, the Spaniard was unable to bridge the gap and remained in 2nd when the race came to its conclusion. John Gadret made it a big day for Ag2r by taking 3rd both on the stage and on GC.

The win is the major breakthrough for Bardet who has long been regarded as a big talent and recently finished 15th in the Tour de France to end the race as the best home rider. At the same time, the win signals Poels comeback to form after the dramatic crash that also brought his career to an end at last year's Tour de France.

A big queen stage

Nothing was decided until the end of the Tour de l'Ain which finished with its short 126,2km queen stage. Three smaller climbs preceded the mighty Col du Grand Colombier and from the top of that colossal HC mountain, 38km of downhill and rolling terrain remained.

The first riders to get a significant gap were Mads Christensen (Saxo-Tinkoff), Gregoire Tarride (La Pomme Marseille) and David Le Lay (Sojasun) but those three riders were quickly brought back by the fast-moving peloton. Instead, Franco Pellizotti (Androni), Matthias Brändle (IAM), Rudy Kowalski (Roubaix) and Dupont got clear and after a short chase, Pierre-Luc Perrichon (Bretagne) and Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) made it across.

The front group splits up

On the day's first climb, the race had still not settled and so the front group had to race hard to keep their gap. Fouchard, Perrichon and Kowalski fell back into the peloton and instead Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxo-Tinkoff) bridged across on the day's second climb. A little later, Antoine Lavieu (La Pomme Marseille), Julien Berard (Ag2r)m Poels, Bruno Pires (Saxo-Tinkoff), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Alex Howes (Garmin) also made it up to the leaders by attacking on that same ascent..

After the top, Slagter took a natural break and the race calmed down, allowing the breakaway to build up a two-minute gap. With Poels being 10th on GC only 2.26 down, the group could not be allowed too much leeway and Belkin kept the gap stable for some time.

Paulinho is off the front

The front group had an advantage of 1.42 when they started to climb the Grand Colombier and Paulinho made an immediate attack to get clear on his own. Howes and Dupont set off in pursuit while Berard, Brändle, Lavieu and Coppel fell off the pace in the chase group.

In the peloton, Francis Mourey (FDJ) was applying the pressure to prepare a win for either Kenny Elissonde and Thibaut Pinot and so the yellow jersey group had blown to pieces. That didn't prevent Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM) from launching an attack, and for a long time the young Swiss was in between the main groups.

Howes creates a new selection

Paulinho was brought back by the chasers who had also reeled in Dupont and Howes but the latter refused to give up. He launched another attack and this time only Poels, Quintero, Dupont and Poels could respond.

Now it was time for Bardet to show his cards and the Frenchman launched a furious attack. He bridged across to the leader which had now been joined by Reichenbach and as they crested the summit, only Bardet, Dupont, Poels and Reichenbach were left. Behind, Gadret, Sanchez and Howes had joined forces to form a chase group.

Only 2 riders remain in the lead

Reichenbach fell off the pace on the descent while Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) made an unsuccessful attempt to bridge to the chasers. Dupont used up his energy on the flat stretch and fell back to the chase group from which Howes now had lost contact.

With a one-minute gap over their chasers, it was clear that Poels and Bardet would stay away until the finish, and so Gadret decided to attack the chase group which now only consisted of Sanchez, Dupont and Reichenbach. While Poels and Bardet shared the spoils at the finish, Gadret kept his chasers at bay to take 3rd while Sanchez took 5th behind Reichenbach to defend his 2nd place on GC.

In the main group, Slagter fell off the pace on one of the many hills in the final part of the stage and the Dutchman kept losing time all the way to the line. He ended up crossing the line in 19th and slipped to 9th on what was a disastrous day for the Belkin team.

Result:

1. Wout Poels 3.15.13

2. Romain Bardet

3. John Gadret +1.12

4. Sebastien Reichenbach +1.25

5. Luis Leon Sanchez

6. Hubert Dupont

7. Pieter Serry +1.46

8. Dries Devenyns

9. Emanuele Sella

10. Stephane Rossetto

General classification:

1. Romain Bardet 14.09.22

2. Luis-Leon Sanchez +1.13

3. John Gadret +1.15

4. Sebastien Reichenbach +1.37

5. Stephane Rossetto +1.50

6. Thibaut Pinot +1.55

7. Kenny Elissonde +2.00

8. Wout Poels

9. Tom-Jelte Slagter +2.01

10. Dries Devenyns +3.48

Points classification:

1. Romain Bardet 43

2. Wout Poels 41

3. Luis-Leon Sanchez 37

4. Fabio Felline 34

5. Yannick Martinez 34

Mountains classification:

1. Matthias Brändle 35

2. Steven Kruijswijk 27

3. Hubert Dupont 22

4. Bert-Jan Lindeman 20

5. Sebastien Reichenbach 20

Youth classification:

1. Kenny Elissonde 14.11.22

2. Clement Chevrier +5.46

3. Merhawi Kudos +6.24

4. Heiner Parra +9.36

5. Gregoire Tarride +9.47

Teams classification:

1. Belkin 42.37.34

2. Ag2r +1.27

3. BigMat +20.08

4. Saxo-Tinkoff +20.13

5. Omega Pharma-Quick Step +25.22