Glory for Groupama on opening stage of Tour de l'Ain 2025 as Tom Donnenwirth powers to the sprint victory ahead of David Gaudu in one-two finish
Cycling
Groupama - FDJ has absolutely dominated on the opening stage of the 2025 Tour de l'Ain, as Tom Donnenwirth powered to the win in a bunch sprint, with teammates David Gaudu and Lorenzo Germani taking 2nd and 4th, respectively.
The trio of Kenny Molly (Van Rysel Roubaix), Yoel Habteab (BIKE AID) and Julian Borresch (REMBE | rad-net) broke free of the peloton early to form the breakaway. Having been kept on a controlled leash for the entire day though, with 34km to still to go, a Team Visma | Lease a Bike led peloton swallowed up the attacking trio with the minimum of fuss.
There was no slowing of the pace though, as on the Col de Portes, Visma's relentless pace-setting began to take a toll. In fact, as Ben Tulett and Cian Uijtdebroeks began to ride away, only Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team's Nicolas Prodhomme was able to keep contact at the front. After that move was nullified by the chasers soon after though, with 10km to go, only the lone figure of Oliver Mattheis was out ahead of the main contenders.
With 3km to go, Matthies was still dangling around 5-6 seconds ahead of the peloton and not giving up. At 2km to go though, the German's brave attack was finally ended. Then came the sprint finale and in the fight for the victory, it was Groupama - FDJ's Tom Donnenwirth who took victory ahead of Andrea Vendrame.
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling for
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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