Preview Faun-Ardéche Classic 2026 - Will Paul Seixas come out victorious in a race with Ben Healy, Christian Scaroni and Matteo Jorgenson?

On the 28th of February the peloton will take on the Faun-Ardèche Classic; the first of two weekend races in the Ardèche area where the races favour the climbers and the classics specialists. We preview the race, which is expected to start and finish at 11:45 and 16:35CET.

The race was created back in 2001 and throughout its first years had winners from countries such as Algeria and Moldova, quickly capturing an unusual international reputation. However it quickly began to build a strong reputation with winners such as Jean-Christophe Peraud, Christophe Riblon and Arthur Vichot...

Many of France's best are present in the race's palmarès in recent years such as Romain Bardet, Lilian Calmejane, Rémo Cavagna, Davis Gaudu, Julian Alaphilippe and most recently in 2025 Romain Grégoire - the Frenchman won the sprint after several riders went the wrong way in a roundabout.

The 188.5 kilometers feature over 3400 meters of climbing. This starts right from the start line, the riders tackle an initial circuit with several ascents. This is the very same course in which Tadej Pogacar has won the 2025 European Championships over Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas.

Later the race can decided in a 6.3-kilometers ascent at 7.6% which summits with 39.5 kilometers to go, Saint-Roman-de-Lerps; And the brutally steep Val d'Enfer which is 1.5 kilometers at over 10%. This ascent is tackled twice at the end of the day making for a total of four times throughou8t the entire race. It summits with 25.5 and 6 kilometers to go; and is where the race is most likely to be decided.

*** Paul Seixas, Christian Scaroni, Romain Grégoire
** Jan Christen, Matteo Jorgenson, Mattias Skjelmose, Ben Healy
* António Morgado, Pavel Sivakov, Ben Tulett, Quinn Simmons, Clément Champoussin, Lenny Martínez, Egan Bernal, Axel Laurance, Javier Romo, Diego Pescador, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Harry Sweeny, Jarno Widar, Marc HIrschi

Pick: Romain Grégoire

How: Small group sprint