Cian Uijtdebroeks is back and back with a bang! After his well-documented issues throughout this season, the Belgian of
Team Visma | Lease a Bike has emphatically silenced his doubters by putting in a monstrous performance on the Colombier, to win stage 3 of the 2025
Tour de l'Ain and take the overall GC win from
Nicolas Prodhomme in the process.
The racing kicked off early on this Queen Stage, with the big names not waiting for the Col du Grand Colombier to make their move. On the opening couple of climbs of the day, an elite seven rider group snapped the elastic, one that included GC leader Nicolas Prodhomme and teammate Geoffrey Bouchard, 2nd overall Cian Uijtdebroeks and his Visma teammates Ben Tulett and Jorgen Nordhagen, plus Sylvain Moniquet and Louis Rouland.
On the Colombier though, Uijtdebroeks, who has struggled for so long since making the move to Team Visma | Lease a Bike at the start of 2024, showed just why he was so highly sought after beforehand. The Belgian powered clear of all his rivals, putting in a massive showing in the high mountains and cracking the race leader Prodhomme. By the time he summited, Uijtdebroeks was clear by around a minute and a half from Prodhomme, with the next nearest chasers over four minutes down. With around 40km still to go before the line however, it wasn't over just yet.
In actual fact however, it was Prodhomme that started to fade even further on the descent, with Uijtdebroeks increasing his lead out to more than two minutes as the Belgian entered the final 10km. With that being the case, not only was the stage win secured for the Visma star, but having started the day just 2 seconds down on Maillot Jaune Prodhomme in the GC, the overall race win was also heading home with Uijtdebroeks.