Giant-Shimano worked hard all day to set Marcel Kittel up for a sprint win on the opening stage of the Tour de l'Eurometropole. However, the combination of a mistimed lead-out and an uphill finishing straight left the team empty-handed.
Team Giant-Shimano came away empty-handend from the opening stage of the Tour de l’Eurométropole after working hard to set up the sprint. The race was all together heading into the final kilometres but after coming to the front slightly too early on the uphill drag to the line Marcel Kittel faded and finished outside of the top ten.
The opening stage of the four day race got off to a rapid start with attacks coming and going for the opening 50km before a group finally established a gap. Five riders moved clear and the team were quick to start to control the peloton behind, already showing the intentions for a bunch sprint.
The gap grew to a maximum of just over four minutes before dropping back down to 1’10″ with 50km to race. The riders were given several chances to see the lay-out of the finish as the race took in several laps of the finishing circuit, and it was on the penultimate lap that the race all came back together.
Many teams tried to launch riders off the front in the closing stages but with five kilometres everything was still together at the front of the race and heading into a bunch sprint.
Team Giant-Shimano were focused on setting up the finish for Kittel and got him into a strong position coming into the final kilometre but they were forced to the front too soon and with the road ramping up towards the line Kittel was passed by riders coming with more speed from behind in the sprint.
The stage honours eventually went to French champion Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr) and he assumes the overall race lead as a result.
Tom Veelers said after the finish: “After a big fight for the break to go we took control with FDJ and Lotto and everything went well here. But then late on we had some small problems getting the train on track and then at the end we came through a bit too early for the last 500m uphill stretch so it didn’t quite work out how we wished.”
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