Kevin Vauquelin finally managed to raise his hands in a professional race. The 22 years old French rider from team Arkéa Samsic managed to win the opening stage of Tour des Alpes Maritimes after 7 podium places last season.
"After so many podiums last year, it feels wonderful! I was maybe putting a bit of pressure on myself. To finally be able to raise my arms, it feels good. I think that it will unlock something, I have to realize that I have won, I can potentially take more risks", said Vauquelin in the post race interview.
Vauquelin integrated a very dangerous late breakaway that was formed on the last 11 kilometres of the stage in the up and down terrain. And launched a powerful attack on the last km that couldn't be matched by nobody despite the efforts of Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) who finished second ahead of Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ).
"It was very fast in the climb, there was a strong group that came out, we tried to follow without doing too much. I tried once at the three kilometres, but it was unsuccessful, so I saved some for the end, like a track rider. And I did the kilometre, it was hard, so I knew if I got a bit of a lead I could make a difference. I didn't know who would go fastest in the sprint, I preferred to try before like I used to do", Vauquelin said.
After a somewhat less good Étoile de Bessèges the Frenchman this time managed to be in the right place at the right time and delivered a masterpiece victory proving that he is with good legs.
"It's only the beginning. We also made mistakes, I made mistakes, you have to learn, and I showed that today, by being in the right place when it was necessary, by feeling the blows. I made the efforts I like, I was successful today, it paid off. This is a concrete result, it shows that I was in very good shape.", Vauquelin concluded.
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