Richard Carapaz attacks to win Mercan'Tour Classic solo, Felix Gall rides to second

Richard Carapaz was the man to beat at the French Mercan'Tour Classic, and he delivered as he was the strongest in the Alpine race.

The French race began with a large breakaway going up the road featuring Fabien Grellier, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Xavier Cañellas, Alejandro Ropero, Gleb Brussenskiy, Jordi López, Mathis Le Berre and Rasmus Pedersen. The eight riders had little chance of succeeding but forced the peloton into having a solid pace throughout the day.

The gap reached 6 minutes in it's maximum, but began to seriously drop in the Col de la Couillole, the toughest climb of the day. There Jordi López moved solo with 52 kilometers to go, keeping the gap stable at around 2 minutes until the summit of the ascent with Cofidis pacing a reduced group.

After the ascent EF Education-EasyPost picked up the pace, catching López in the following kilometers and further reducing the peloton. In the final descent into the base of the final climb Lilian Calmejane launched off the front, but in the start of the climb the pace was once again very high and the Frenchman was caught.

It was with 7 kilometers to go that Richard Carapaz attacked, and was a level above the competition. Lenny Martínez tried to bridge across but failed, joined then by Felix Gall, Lennert van Eetvelt and Cristian Rodríguez. Gall then set off but couldn't bridge across as the rain began to fall.

The Austrian seemed to at times be close to close the gap, but in the final 1.5 kilometers Carapaz accelerated away and took the victory. Gall rode to second place, whilst the third position was taken by Lennert van Eetvelt.

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