La Route d'Occitanie - CIC 2025 Stage 4

June 21, 2025 The final stage is a short and punchy one. At just 128KM, the route between Saint-Gaudens in the Haute-Garrone and Saint-Girons in the Ariège has over 2,600M of elevation with three difficult mountains to pass. The Portet d'Aspet (4.4KM at 9.5%) tops out after just 25KM of racing and the Col de la Core (14.2KM at 5.9%) is summited with 68KM left in the race. A 14KM descent into Seix leads the riders to a 12KM dragging valley road to the final test of the race, the 5.8KM, 7.3% climb of the Col de Latrape. From the top of the Col de Latrape, the riders turn North for the final 37KM which are all downhill and we should see a reduced group or a breakaway coming to the finish together. Yet another cloudless sky was in store for the riders as they set off into hills. A group of 10 were clear with 69KM to go as they were nearing the top of the penultimate climb of the Col de la Core. The break, who had 1 minute on the bunch at this point, consisted of Raúl García Pierna of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Hugh Carthy of EF-Education EasyPost, Simon Carr of Cofidis, Tom Donnenwirth of Groupama-FDJ, David Delgado of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Urko Berrade of Equipo Kern Pharma, Anton Schiffer of BIKEAID, Mikel Bizkarra of Euskatel-Euskadi, Marco Tizza of Wagner-Bazin WB, and Alessandro Tonelli of Polti-VisitMalta. Caja-Rural-Seguros RGA were riding quite hard in the peloton which was reduced down to around 50 riders. The work by Caja-Rural-Seguros RGA continued over the top and on the descent. By the time they reached the bottom in Seix, the race was back together as the bunch started down the valley road running parallel with the Salat river. At least 40 dropped riders came back to the front of the race to make nearly a full peloton with 48KM to go and just 6KM to go before the final climb of the Col de Latrape. Caja-Rural-Seguros RGA led down the valley and up the lower slopes of the climb, primarily with Abel Balderstone driving the pace. After Balderstone pulled off, Caja-Rural-Seguros RGA increased the pace and the bunch was strung out in single file. Jan Castellon attacked when his last teammate pulled off with 40.5KM to go. Decathlon AG2R still had numbers and set the pace to peg the gap of Castellon at just a handful of seconds. Sander de Pestel controlled very well for race leader Nicolas Prodhomme and when Davide Piganzoli of Polti-VisitMalta popped out of the bunch to snag the remaining mountains points at the top of the climb, Castellon was within touching distance. Castellon didn't give up however and got to the bottom of the descent in Aulus-les-Bains still in the lead. Dropped riders started coming back to the peloton on the false flat downhill valley road which added resources to the chase. Inevitably, Castellon was caught with 29.5KM to go as Decathlon AG2R continued their march towards Saint-Girons and the conclusion of the race. Carlos García Pierna of Burgos-Burpellet BH didn't want to wait to the finish and attacked the group. Decathlon AG2R didn't react and just set their pace with Prodhomme even taking his turns on the front. Equipo Kern Pharma put men in the chase and had the race back together once again with 17KM to race. Decathlon AG2R and Groupama-FDJ led from 15KM to 3KM to go when other teams came up and crowded the front. Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ increased the pace under 1KM to go and gave way to Prodhomme who put in one last pull. Decathlon AG2R still had two men on the front with Stan Dewulf and Andrea Vendrame and Groupama-FDJ were sitting with two men on their wheel, Thibaud Gruel and Cyril Barthe. Inside 300M to go, Gruel took Barthe up the inside of Dewulf on the perfect line through the final sweeping left corner. Vendrame got overtaken by Gruel and Barthe from their rush of speed but Vendrame got his sprint going and tried to come back. The line came too soon however and Gruel took the win as the lead out rider ahead of Vendrame and Barthe. Gruel salvaged the race for Groupama-FDJ who were invisible for the first three stages. There were no changes at the top of the GC leaderboard today. Prodhomme went out the winner overall, the first GC win of his career and his fourth win of the season. Davide Piganzoli of Polti-VisitMalta finished second at 2 minutes 7 seconds with Steff Cras of TotalEnergies in third at 2 minutes 27 seconds.