Faun-Ardèche Classic 2025

March 1, 2025 Most eyes may be on Opening Weekend in Belgium but there is great racing happening in the Ardèche department of Southern France. The first 3/4 of the 166KM race is two large laps with four climbs, three of which are categorized including the Val d'Enfer which is just 1.5KM in length but it averages 10.5%. The riders pass through the finish line in Guilherand-Granges for the penultimate time with 35KM to go to take on the Mur de Cornas, Saint-Romain de Lerps, and Val d'Enfer for a third time with a short 6KM run to the finish from the top. Seven riders including Baptiste Poulard of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Jonas Gregaard of Lotto, Xabier Azparren of Q36.5, Kamiel Bonneu of Intermarché-Wanty, Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies, Célestin Guillon of Van Rysel Roubaix, and Joris Chaussinand of CIC-U Nantes made the break and they still had 2 minutes with 98KM to go. A number of teams were interested in keeping the break on a tight leash. UAE-XRG, Groupama-FDJ, Israel-Premier Tech, and Tudor Pro Cycling were all contributing to the chase. The shape of the bunch changed with 82KM to go to get into position for the descent off of the Col de la Justice. The gap was down to 1 minute with 44KM to go as Lidl-Trek were piling on the pressure due to a split in the bunch on the descent. The splits came together at the bottom of the Val d'Enfer for the penultimate time but the pace was very high. Only Vercher, Azparren, and Bonneu were left in the break as they descended back into Guilherand-Granges but their lead was reduced to just 20 seconds with 35KM to go. The original break were swept up and a large group of at least 70 riders hit the Mur de Cornas together with 27KM to go. Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep made the first attack after 500M of climbing and was quickly joined by Romain Grégoire but UAE-XRG brought it back. A few other moves went from Brandon McNulty and Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG but it wasn't until Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana attacked that the elastic snapped. The chase group still contained 20 riders with 20KM to go as they passed through Saint-Romain de Lerps to start the descent towards the final climb of Val d'Enfer. Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling did the chasing on the valley road toward Val d'Enfer but he wasn't getting any help. He got the go-ahead from his team to attack and he got a gap with Enric Mas of Movistar and Igor Arrieta of UAE-XRG. Brenner and Arrieta dropped away but Mas was able to make contact with Fortunato before the top and the pair started the descent to the finish line with a 10 second gap to 10 riders. Mas and Fortunato were caught with 2.5KM to go to make 12 riders in contention for the win. Brenner was still in the group and kept the pace going to discourage any attacks. Mas ramped up the pace under the last kilometer but with 450M to go, he took the wrong way through a roundabout and brought most of the group with him. Grégoire was far enough back in the group to notice the error and make the correct turn into the finishing straight. Brenner, who had dropped off the group in the last kilometer, came in next with Fortunato taking third place. XDS-Astana amassed over 300 UCI points by placing three riders in the top five.