Tour de l‘Ain 2021 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

July 31, 2021

Tour de l‘Ain 2021 – Stage 3 – Izernore – Lélex Mont-Jura : 125 km

For young, up-and-coming French riders the Tour de l’Ain is one of the most important races on the pro cycling calendar and a big chance to attract the interest of WorldTour talent scouts. The multi-day race was first held back in 1970 under an old and now defunct name, the Prix de l’Amitié. In 1989 a committee of new organisers came in and changed the name to the more familiar Tour de l’Ain. They also took the race to a new region, swapping southeast France and the French Alps for the Jura Mountains and the Ain departement in east-central France. Since the establishment of the UCI ProTour back in 2005, the Tour de l’Ain has been ranked as a 2.1 event, making it one of the biggest French stage races outside of the Tour de France, Paris-Nice and Critérium du Dauphiné. Up until 2018, the race regularly ran for five stages, with a short opening prologue followed by four punchy road stages. Now there’s just three stages for the riders to compete over, two of which are often held in the heart of the Jura Mountains. The climbs in the Jura Mountains may not be quite as well known as those in the French Alps, but that doesn’t make them any less tough. Climbs like the Col du Grand Colombier, Col de la Faucille, Col du Berthiand and Col de Menthières have all featured on this race in the past two years and each one has helped to catalyse a significant GC battle.

Michael Storer (Team DSM) won the final stage and the overall at the Tour de l’Ain after a bold attack on the final stage of the race to Lelex Mon-Jura.

The Australian struck out on the penultimate climb of the Col des Menthières with 23km to go and managed to build up a lead of around 30 seconds on a small chase group. He maintained an advantage all the way to the line to win ahead of Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo).

Overnight leader and stage 2 winner Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux was dropped on the Col des Menthières and was unable to rejoin the leading group over the undulating finale. For Storer, 24, it was the biggest win of his career so far.

The Australian put in a consummate performance, maintaining a healthy lead over the long Col des Menthières and then holding off the second group on the road over the technical descent. With around 10km to go, Storer’s gap sat at just over 30 seconds but and despite a late chase from his rivals the rider from Perth held on for both the stage win and the overall victory.

Earlier in the stage a group of around 20 riders had gone clear but they were caught and then replaced at the front of the race by a group that contained Nans Peters (AG2R Citroën Team), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Simon Guglielmi (Groupama-FDJ), Dmitry Strakhov (Gazprom), Alan Boileau (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), Thibault Guernalec (Team Arkea-Samsic), and Carmelo Urbano (Caja Rural).

On the Côte de Giron – a 3.7km ascent with an average gradient of over 6 per cent – the group began to split and with 41km to go the leaders had just 34 seconds over a vastly reduced peloton controlled by Trek-Segafredo.

On the lower slopes of the Col des Menthières it was Guglielmi who attacked first as Quinn Simmons set the pace for the main field. After a brief reshuffle on the climb Lafay was joined by his teammate Remy Rochas but the pair were unable to create more than a slender advantage.

With 26km to go and plenty of the ascent still to race the break was brought back with Lotto Soudal on the front. A kilometer later and Zimmermann was dropped with Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal) stretching clear with Storer, Matteo Badilatti (Groupama-FDJ), Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën Team), Bagioli and Skjelmose Jensen.

Two kilometers later and Storer seized his moment, before cresting the top of the climb with a 20-second lead. From there he never looked in trouble before going on to take DSM’s first win since Paris-Nice.

Results :
1 Michael Storer (Aus) Team DSM 3:02:46
2 Andrea Bagioli (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 3:03:29
3 Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Trek-Segafredo
4 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal
5 Matteo Badilatti (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 3:03:31
6 Clément Champoussin (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
7 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 3:04:09
8 Olivier Le Gac (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
9 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
10 Andreas Kron (Den) Lotto Soudal
11 Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
12 Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal
13 Jose Manuel Diaz Gallego (Spa) Delko
14 Maxime Chevalier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
15 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
16 Sean Quinn (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon
17 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
18 Pierre Latour (Fra) Total Direct Energie
19 Castellarnau Florent (Fra)
20 Rémy Rochas (Fra) Cofidis
21 Michel Ries (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
22 Matthew Riccitello (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon
23 Edward Ravasi (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
24 Georg Zimmermann (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
25 Jakob Geßner (Ger) Rad-net Rose Team
26 Delio Fernandez Cruz (Spa) Delko
27 Bennett Stéfan (Fra)
28 Jhojan Garcia Susa (Col) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
29 Georg Steinhauser (Ger) Tirol KTM Cycling Team 3:04:16
30 Victor Lafay (Fra) Cofidis 3:08:10
31 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:08:41
32 Sebastian Schönberger (Aut) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:09:25
33 Jolibert Clément (Fra)
34 Sergei Chernetskii (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
35 Nikolay Cherkasov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo 3:10:13
36 Clement Venturini (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 3:10:15
37 Sergio Garcia Gonzalez (Spa) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
38 Richard Louis (Fra)
39 Nicolas Prodhomme (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
40 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
41 Flavien Maurelet (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93
42 Dominik Röber (Ger) P & S Metalltechnik 3:14:10
43 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 3:14:52
44 Alexander Tarlton (Ger) Team Lotto-Kern Haus 3:16:09
45 Mark Christian (GBr) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
46 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
47 Erik Fetter (Hun) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
48 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Groupama-FDJ
49 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ
50 Jannik Steimle (Ger) Deceuninck-QuickStep
51 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
52 Henri Vandenabeele (Bel) Team DSM
53 Mathias De Witte (Bel) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
54 Sergio Roman Martin Galan (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
55 Alan Boileau (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
56 Cristian Scaroni (Ita) Gazprom-RusVelo
57 Jannis Peter (Ger) Rad-net Rose Team
58 Quinn Simmons (USA) Trek-Segafredo
59 Thomas Champion (Fra) Cofidis
60 Didier Clément (Fra)
61 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Total Direct Energie
62 Nans Peters (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team
63 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Total Direct Energie
64 Simon Guglielmi (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
65 Jan Hirt (Cze) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
66 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
67 Mathias Le Turnier (Fra) Delko 3:18:46
68 Thibault Guernalec (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 3:19:45
69 Mathieu Burgaudeau (Fra) Total Direct Energie
70 Sylvain Moniquet (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:22:13
71 Brenans Emile (Fra)
72 Maxime Urruty (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
73 Romain Cardis (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93
74 Eddy Fine (Fra) Cofidis
75 Théo Delacroix (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
76 Florian Vermeersch (Bel) Lotto Soudal
77 Shane Archbold (NZl) Deceuninck-QuickStep 3:22:16
78 Bryan Coquard (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:23:36
79 Carmelo Urbano Fontiveros (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
80 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:24:15
81 Felix Gall (Aut) Team DSM
82 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo
83 Otto Vergaerde (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
84 Alvaro Cuadros Morata (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
85 Dries De Bondt (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
86 Ian Garrison (USA) Deceuninck-QuickStep
87 Philipp Walsleben (Ger) Alpecin-Fenix
88 Stijn Steels (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
89 Alvaro Hodeg Chagui (Col) Deceuninck-QuickStep
90 Emmanuel Morin (Fra) Cofidis
91 Jérémy Leveau (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
92 Lucas De Rossi (Fra) Delko
93 Jason Tesson (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93
94 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Cofidis
95 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
96 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) Total Direct Energie
97 Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Tirol KTM Cycling Team 3:28:44
98 Florian Stork (Ger) Team DSM 3:30:02
99 Lubomír Petrus (Cze) Alpecin-Fenix
100 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 3:31:00
101 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
102 Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 3:35:04
103 Pedro Andrade (Por) Hagens Berman Axeon
104 Samuel Janisch (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon
DNF Jeremy Bellicaud (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
DNF Alex Richardson (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF David Gonzalez Lopez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
DNF Mattia Frapporti (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
DNF Luca Wackermann (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
DNF Morné Van Niekerk (RSA) St Michel-Auber 93
DNF Julien Antomarchi (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
DNF Dylan Kowalski (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
DNS Christophe Noppe (Bel) Team Arkea-Samsic
DNS Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
OTL Marco Brenner (Ger) Team DSM

Final General Classification :
1 Michael Storer (Aus) Team DSM 9:13:09
2 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:55
3 Matteo Badilatti (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:01
4 Andrea Bagioli (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:15
5 Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:17
6 Clément Champoussin (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:01:23
7 Georg Zimmermann (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:01:29
8 Rémy Rochas (Fra) Cofidis 0:01:39
9 Georg Steinhauser (Ger) Tirol KTM Cycling Team 0:01:46
10 Jose Manuel Diaz Gallego (Spa) Delko 0:01:57
11 Olivier Le Gac (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:01
12 Pierre Latour (Fra) Total Direct Energie
13 Andreas Kron (Den) Lotto Soudal
14 Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
15 Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal
16 Castellarnau Florent (Fra)
17 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
18 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo 0:03:23
19 Sean Quinn (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon
20 Maxime Chevalier (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
21 Jakob Geßner (Ger) Rad-net Rose Team
22 Jhojan Garcia Susa (Col) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
23 Michel Ries (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
24 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
25 Matthew Riccitello (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon
26 Bennett Stéfan (Fra)
27 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 0:06:33
28 Sergei Chernetskii (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo 0:07:17
29 Edward Ravasi (Ita) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team 0:07:45
30 Jolibert Clément (Fra) 0:08:39
31 Nikolay Cherkasov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo 0:09:27
32 Clement Venturini (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:09:29
33 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
34 Richard Louis (Fra)
35 Delio Fernandez Cruz (Spa) Delko 0:10:14
36 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
37 Victor Lafay (Fra) Cofidis 0:11:46
38 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:12:44
39 Sebastian Schönberger (Aut) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 0:13:01
40 Dominik Röber (Ger) P & S Metalltechnik 0:13:24
41 Quinn Simmons (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:14:01
42 Jannik Steimle (Ger) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:15:23
43 Simon Guglielmi (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
44 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
45 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Total Direct Energie
46 Alan Boileau (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
47 Mark Christian (GBr) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
48 Henri Vandenabeele (Bel) Team DSM
49 Jannis Peter (Ger) Rad-net Rose Team
50 Didier Clément (Fra)
51 Nicolas Prodhomme (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:16:20
52 Sergio Garcia Gonzalez (Spa) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team
53 Flavien Maurelet (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93
54 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Groupama-FDJ 0:19:45
55 Jan Hirt (Cze) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
56 Sylvain Moniquet (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:21:27
57 Erik Fetter (Hun) Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team 0:22:14
58 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Total Direct Energie
59 Thomas Champion (Fra) Cofidis
60 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ 0:23:09
61 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo 0:23:29
62 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) Total Direct Energie
63 Mathieu Burgaudeau (Fra) Total Direct Energie 0:25:50
64 Mathias Le Turnier (Fra) Delko 0:25:53
65 Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Tirol KTM Cycling Team 0:27:58
66 Théo Delacroix (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:28:18
67 Eddy Fine (Fra) Cofidis
68 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:29:21
69 Sergio Roman Martin Galan (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
70 Alvaro Hodeg Chagui (Col) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:30:10
71 Emmanuel Morin (Fra) Cofidis 0:30:20
72 Mathias De Witte (Bel) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole 0:30:25
73 Cristian Scaroni (Ita) Gazprom-RusVelo
74 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo
75 Thibault Guernalec (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:30:58
76 Alexander Tarlton (Ger) Team Lotto-Kern Haus 0:31:33
77 Nans Peters (Fra) AG2R Citroën Team 0:31:57
78 Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:34:18
79 Florian Vermeersch (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:36:29
80 Maxime Urruty (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
81 Brenans Emile (Fra)
82 Shane Archbold (NZl) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:37:20
83 Otto Vergaerde (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:37:27
84 Bryan Coquard (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 0:37:48
85 Dries De Bondt (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:38:31
86 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Cofidis
87 Philipp Walsleben (Ger) Alpecin-Fenix
88 Jérémy Leveau (Fra) Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole
89 Lucas De Rossi (Fra) Delko
90 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal
91 Felix Gall (Aut) Team DSM
92 Stijn Steels (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
93 Alvaro Cuadros Morata (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
94 Romain Cardis (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93 0:39:36
95 Carmelo Urbano Fontiveros (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:39:38
96 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:41:07
97 Lubomír Petrus (Cze) Alpecin-Fenix 0:44:18
98 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:45:16
99 Florian Stork (Ger) Team DSM 0:45:20
100 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) B&B Hotels p/b KTM 0:46:09
101 Ian Garrison (USA) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:46:50
102 Jason Tesson (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93 0:47:16
103 Pedro Andrade (Por) Hagens Berman Axeon 0:49:20
104 Samuel Janisch (USA) Hagens Berman Axeon 1:00:13