Faun-Ardèche Classic 2022 [LAST 15 KM]

February 26, 2022

Faun-Ardèche Classic 2022 – Guilherand-Granges – Guilherand-Granges : 168,6 km

The Faun-Adrèche Classic, better known as the Classic de l’Ardèche and formerly known as Les Boucles du Sud-Ardèche, is a hilly race in the Ardèche department of France, where the intensity of racing is not too dissimilar to Strade Bianche. Held in late February every season, the Faun-Ardèche Classic is also known as Souvenir Francis Delpech and organised by the Ruoms Cyclisme Organisation.

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) took a fine solo victory in the Ardèche Classic, attacking 23 kilometres from the finish before riding away from his rivals.

The 23-year-old American was part of a group that went clear on the penultimate time up the Côte de Val d’Enfer, and he then disanced his breakaway companions to take victory.

It was the American’s second victory of the season after also winning the Trofeo Calvia last month, and he signalled his continuing good form by placing second overall at the Volta ao Algarve.

World champion Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) had started the attacking, but as a tactical battle commenced, the winning breakaway slipped away and finished at the back of a reduced peloton.

Sepp Kuss had launched the winning move, but McNulty slipped clear finishing 45 seconds clear and the Jumbo-Visma rider was beaten into second in a sprint with Mauri Vansevenant (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl).

The peloton were left battling for seventh place with Alaphilippe and Roglič on the back.

How it unfolded
Last year’s edition saw David Gaudu (Groupama – FDJ) take victory after a two-up sprint with Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën Team). Gaudu did not start this year’s edition to defend his title with all eyes on world champion Julian Alaphilippe.

Starting his season at the Ardèche Classic was Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who was looking to test his winter training ahead of Paris-Nice next week.

The Ardèche Classic features over 3,000 metres of climbing and three ascents of the Côte de Val d’Enfer with steep sections of 14%.

Roglič, along with many of his race rivals, was treating it as a double weekend of French races with the Drôme Classic the following day.

The 168km course saw riders compete over eight classified climbs with the race starting and finishing in Guilherand-Granges.

A difficult final 29km included the Mur de Cornas, Saint Romain de Lerps and finally the Côte de Val d’Enfer, which is just 1.5km in length but with an average of 10% and it cam just 7km from the finish.

Attacks started as soon as the flag dropped on the Côte du Pin with riders keen to make the day’s breakaway, while QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Jumbo-Visma monitored who escaped the bunch.

A three-man breakaway eventually formed consisting of Bruno Armirail (Groupama – FDJ), Jérémy Cabot (TotalEnergies) and Mathias Le Turnier (Team U Nantes Atlantique) with the trio quickly building a lead of over four minutes.

On the second climb of the day, Col de la Justice, the bunch split with Groupama – FDJ and

Lotto Soudal being caught out and having to expend energy chasing 13 kilometres before regrouping.

After the opening exchanges the race settled down with the peloton sitting 2:27 back with 55 kilometres of racing remaining.

Coming onto the long descent to the foot of Côte de Val d’Enfer, it was Le Turnier who was dropped from the breakaway.

On the penultimate time up the Côte de Val d’Enfer, nicknamed ‘the valley of hell’, the favourites started to begin pushing the pace with Bora-Hansgrohe and Jumbo-Visma gathering on the front as the gap came down to two minutes with 35km remaining.

The breakaway split on the Mur du Cornas with Armirail going clear alone breaking his partner with 28km left.

Behind, Jumbo-Visma set up an attack for Roglič which was countered by Alaphilippe taking a group of eight riders at the head of proceedings.

On the descent, Alaphilippe continued his assault but was again followed by Roglič and Brandon McNulty), as the leading group reduced to around 10 riders.

Jumbo-Visma had another card to play as Sepp Kuss was the next to launch an attack with 26 kilometres left of the race. Kuss was joined at the front by McNulty, Mauri Vansevenant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) and Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën Team).

The newly formed breakaway caught Amirail at the head of proceedings and had a gap of 30 seconds on the group of favourites.

McNulty launched his bid for victory and as the breakaway allowed him a small gap that then grew to 10 seconds with 23 kilometres remaining. Three kilometres later, on the descent of Saint-Romain-de-Lerps, and with only the final climb remaining, McNulty led by 17 seconds from a chase pairing of Vansevenant and Champoussin, with the bunch now 1:10 behind.

Kuss battled his way back to Vansevenant and Champoussin, with the chasing trio 30 seconds behind lone leader McNulty and the bunch 1:20 back with 10 kilometres remaining.

Hitting the final 1.5 kilometre climb with just 7.5 kilometres remaining, McNulty was riding strongly and alone as he hit the 14% gradients.

In the chasing breakaway, Champoussin was dropped as Kuss and Vansevenant looked to pull back the 43-second deficit.

Behind the peloton were left with too much to do on the final climb as the breakaway battled for the podium spots.

McNulty soloed to victory, while Vansevenant outsprinted Kuss for second place at 45 seconds and the chasers came in at 1:44.

Results :
1 Brandon Mcnulty (USA) Uae Team Emirates 4:26:36
2 Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team 0:00:45
3 Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma
4 Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora – Hansgrohe 0:01:33
5 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis
6 Clément Champoussin (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team 0:01:36
7 Quentin Pacher (Fra) Groupama – Fdj 0:01:44
8 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Arkea – Samsic
9 Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team
10 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Totalenergies
11 Georg Zimmermann (Ger) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
12 Andreas Kron (Den) Lotto Soudal
13 Mathieu Burgaudeau (Fra) Totalenergies
14 Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Spa) Uae Team Emirates
15 Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
16 Rémy Rochas (Fra) Cofidis
17 Stefano Oldani (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix
18 Sylvain Moniquet (Bel) Lotto Soudal
19 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team
20 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Team Arkea – Samsic
21 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) Groupama – Fdj
22 Pierre Latour (Fra) Totalenergies
23 Sam Oomen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
24 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora – Hansgrohe
25 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
26 Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma
27 Maxim Van Gils (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:57
28 Andréa Mifsud (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur 0:03:12
29 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team 0:03:22
30 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:03:34
31 Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:03:53
32 Victor Koretzky (Fra) B&B Hotels – Ktm
33 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma
34 Romain Gregoire (Fra) Groupama – Fdj
35 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Uae Team Emirates
36 Jan Polanc (Slo) Uae Team Emirates
37 Mikael Cherel (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team 0:04:12
38 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek – Segafredo
39 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Totalenergies 0:04:16
40 Jacob Eriksson (Swe) Riwal Cycling Team
41 Andrea Bagioli (Ita) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
42 Kenny Molly (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
43 Nans Peters (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team
44 Andres Camilo Ardila Ordoñez (Col) Uae Team Emirates 0:04:19
45 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Team Arkea – Samsic
46 Thibault Ferasse (Fra) B&B Hotels – Ktm 0:04:51
47 Tom Mainguenaud (Fra) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole 0:05:45
48 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama – Fdj 0:06:02
49 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux 0:06:58
50 Reuben Thompson (NZl) Groupama – Fdj
51 Harold Alfonso Tejada Canacue (Col) Astana Qazaqstan Team
52 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
53 Mauro Schmid (Swi) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
54 Hugo Page (Fra) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
55 Juan Pedro Lopez Perez (Spa) Trek – Segafredo
56 Winner Andrew Anacona (Col) Team Arkea – Samsic 0:08:50
57 Jeremy Cabot (Fra) Totalenergies
58 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora – Hansgrohe
59 Maxime Jarnet (Fra) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole
60 Asbjørn Hellemose (Den) Trek – Segafredo 0:10:31
61 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) Ag2R Citroen Team 0:10:44
62 Théo Delacroix (Fra) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
63 Niklas Eg (Den) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:11:08
64 Quinn Simmons (USA) Trek – Segafredo
65 Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:12:47
66 Torjus Sleen (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:13:10
67 Gil Gelders (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb Development Team
68 Sebastian Schönberger (Aut) B&B Hotels – Ktm
69 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis
70 Pierre Luc Perichon (Fra) Cofidis
71 Emmanuel Morin (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique
72 Maël Guegan (Fra)
73 Yoann Paillot (Fra) St Michel – Auber 93
74 Anthony Maldonado (Fra) St Michel – Auber 93
75 Antoine Berlin (Mon) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur
76 Cyril Gautier (Fra) B&B Hotels – Ktm
77 Dorian Godon (Fra) Ag2R Citroen Team
78 Laurent Pichon (Fra) Team Arkea – Samsic
79 Giovanni Aleotti (Ita) Bora – Hansgrohe
80 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek – Segafredo
81 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Groupama – Fdj
82 Julien Simon (Fra) Totalenergies
83 Jordan Jegat (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique
84 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Team Arkea – Samsic
85 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan Team
86 Miguel Heidemann (Ger) B&B Hotels – Ktm
87 Ben Zwiehoff (Ger) Bora – Hansgrohe
88 Valentin Ferron (Fra) Totalenergies
89 Anthon Charmig (Den) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
90 Anthony Roux (Fra) Groupama – Fdj
91 Luc Wirtgen (Lux) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
92 Alexandre Delettre (Fra) Cofidis
93 Maxime Urruty (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur
94 Simone Petilli (Ita) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
95 Laurens Huys (Bel) Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux
96 Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Cofidis
97 Victor Lafay (Fra) Cofidis
98 Franck Bonnamour (Fra) B&B Hotels – Ktm
99 Jean Goubert (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur
100 Kévin Besson (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur
101 Gijs Leemreize (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
102 Elmar Reinders (Ned) Riwal Cycling Team
103 Lucas Eriksson (Swe) Riwal Cycling Team
104 Mathias Bregnhøj (Den) Riwal Cycling Team 0:15:29
105 Martijn Budding (Ned) Riwal Cycling Team
106 Maxime Chevalier (Fra) B&B Hotels – Ktm
107 Louis Barre (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique
108 Axel Mariault (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique
109 Clément Carisey (Fra) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole
110 Fabio Felline (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:16:12
111 Kamil Malecki (Pol) Lotto Soudal
112 Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski (USA) Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:16:18
113 Mathias Le Turnier (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique 0:16:51
114 Martin Bugge Urianstad (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:17:57
DNF Pieter Serry (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
DNF Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) Uae Team Emirates
DNF Joel Suter (Swi) Uae Team Emirates
DNF Ayco Bastiaens (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix Development Team
DNF Edward Anderson (USA) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF Jimmy Janssens (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Bora – Hansgrohe
DNF Anton Palzer (Ger) Bora – Hansgrohe
DNF Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Trek – Segafredo
DNF Manuele Boaro (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan Team
DNF Aleksandr Riabushenko (Blr) Astana Qazaqstan Team
DNF Nurbergen Nurlykhassym (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan Team
DNF Alessandro Verre (Ita) Team Arkea – Samsic
DNF Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal
DNF Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal
DNF Jacob Madsen (Den) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
DNF Anders Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
DNF Johan Meens (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
DNF Remy Mertz (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
DNF Dimitri Peyskens (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
DNF Marco Tizza (Ita) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces Wb
DNF Christoffer Lisson (Den) Riwal Cycling Team
DNF Flavien Maurelet (Fra) St Michel – Auber 93
DNF Tony Hurel (Fra) St Michel – Auber 93
DNF Morné Van Niekerk (RSA) St Michel – Auber 93
DNF Thomas Denis (Fra) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole
DNF Jérémy Leveau (Fra) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole
DNF Evaldas Šiškevičius (Ltu) Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Metropole
DNF Leo Danes (Fra) Team U Nantes Atlantique
DNF Edouard Bonnefoix (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur
DNF Paul Hennequin (Fra) Nice Metropole Cote D’Azur