PREVIEW | Faun-Ardeche Classic 2025 - Ayuso, Mas, Scaroni and a very strong UAE headline mountainous classic

At the same time as the 'Opening Weekend', French presents it's own weekend of hard racing. Only this will be for the classics specialists and climbers. The Faun-Ardèche Classic will be an exciting continuation to the French calendar. We preview the race ahead.

The 170 kilometers feature over 3000 meters of climbing. This starts right from the start line, the riders tackle an initial circuit with four ascents. Later the race is decided in a 6.3-kilometers asscent at 7.6% which summits with 20.5 kilometers to go, and the brutally steep Val d'Enfer which is 1.5 kilometers at over 10% which ends just 6 kilometers away from the flat finale.

*** Jan Christen, Ben Healy, Valentin Paret-Peintre
** Christian Scaroni, Juan Ayuso, Isaac del Toro, Romain Grégoire
* Brandon McNulty, Isaac del Toro, Marc Hirschi, Attila Valter, Ben Tulett, Mattias Skjelmose, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Valentin Madouas, Guillaume Martin, Enric Mas, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Romain Barder, Michael Woods, Lorenzo Fortunato

Pick: Jan Christen

How: UAE have an incredibly strong team and men in form. It will be a very complex race, but I think Christen fits this finale perfectly.