Van Gils Storms Clear From The Break At Crest-Voland As Tuckwell Takes Yellow And Seixas Cracks The GC Open
The Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes finally tilted upward on Friday, and the first day in the high country produced exactly the chaos the organisers had promised. Maxim Van Gils won Stage 6 into Crest-Voland from a vast early breakaway, while behind him the general classification was blown apart and a new leader emerged in the unlikely shape of Britain's Luke Tuckwell.
The 182.3km stage from Saint-Vulbas had been billed as a transition day, but the long valley roads and four categorised climbs invited an enormous move to go up the road. With the GC teams content to let the day's most dangerous escapees be men who had already lost time, a breakaway swelled to around sixty riders, taking with it the race lead on the road and leaving the favourites to settle their own private battle on the final two-step climb to the ski station.
Van Gils, who has spent the spring rebuilding towards a Tour de France place, judged the finale impeccably. The Belgian punched clear of his breakaway companions on the steep ramps inside the final kilometres and held a slender advantage to the line, with Tuckwell crossing six seconds later to claim not only a strong stage placing but the overall lead. After a week of sprinters and breakaway specialists trading the jersey, it was the kind of opportunistic ride that can flip a race on its head.
The real fireworks, though, came from the group of favourites further down the road. Paul Seixas, the young French climber carrying home expectation ahead of his Tour de France debut, accelerated roughly four kilometres from the summit and immediately thinned the group to a handful. Isaac del Toro and Matteo Jorgenson were the only riders able to respond at first, but Jorgenson cracked with just over two kilometres remaining, leaving the young Mexican to cling doggedly to Seixas's wheel all the way to the line.
The consequence is a general classification that finally has shape. Tuckwell leads the race courtesy of his place in the breakaway, but the gaps behind him are slim and the men who matter are now within striking distance. Seixas sits second at 3:06, with Juan Ayuso a further nine seconds back at 3:15 and both Del Toro and Jorgen Nordhagen level at 3:22. With a breakaway rider in yellow and the climbers stacked just behind, the stage has been set for a brutal reckoning in the days to come.
For Decathlon CMA CGM and Seixas, the ride was a statement of intent and a reminder of why France is so excited about its newest Grand Tour hope. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who hold both Del Toro and Ayuso near the top of the standings, the race now becomes a question of numbers and nerve. The mountains have only just begun, and the Grand Colombier looms next.