Place Name: Rue Du Verger
Address: 8 Rue Du Verger, 26800 Étoile-sur-Rhône, France
Details: March 1, 2026
The second day of racing along the Rhône occurs on the Eastern bank of the river with the start and finish in Étoile-sur-Rhône. Today is a much lighter profile with just 2,200M of elevation but the challenges come in the final third of the race. The first two thirds of the day take place on a 48KM circuit ridden two and a half times. Once out of the circuit, there will be 60KM to go with three main climbs followed by four small rises that will sting the legs. The three larger climbs are the Col de Tartaiguille, 4.3KM at 4.4%, the Col de la Grande Limite, 4KM at 6.3%, and the Côte des Roberts, 1.6KM at 7.7% which tops out 26KM from the finish. The Côte de Grane is the first kicker then the route swings back onto the original circuit to taken on the Mur d'Allex and Plateau Soulier before the final rise to the finish which is 1.1KM at 5.4%.
Riders to watch: Jan Christen, Matteo Jorgenson, Ben Tulett, Ewen Costiou, Romain Grégoire, Mattias Skjelmose, Quinn Simmons, Lenny Martinez, Christian Scaroni, Axel Laurance, Jefferson Cepeda, Paul Lapeira, Ben Healy, Jarno Widar, Marco Brenner, Alex Aranburu, Alexandre Delettre, Thomas Gloag
Yesterday's weather system moved out and left crystal clear blue skies and temperatures pushing 15C (60F). Another large break formed early with seven riders, consisting of Arnaud Tendon and Kenny Molly of Van Rysel Roubaix, Sjoerd Bax of Pinarello Q36.5, Jonas Walton of CIC Pro Cycling Academy, Valentin Retailleau of TotalEnergiers, Javier Ibáñez of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and Tom Mainguenaud of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur. Through the finish line with 97KM to go, they had 2 minutes 25 seconds on the peloton who were being led by both Ineos and Bahrain Victorious.
The race carried on with the peloton controlling until 73KM to go when they woke from their slumber to position for the Mur d'Eurre, an 800M ramp 7.6%. The charge brought the gap down by 20 seconds in a flash but once on the climb, it all settled back down. Visma-Lease a Bike took over on the descent and the positioning battle resumed on the valley roads heading towards the Mur d'Allex for the penultimate time. There was no action on the climb but the peloton looked to be tensing up as they passed the wide open, fertile, green agricultural fields on the banks of the Rhône with their thoughts now on the Col de Tartaiguille.
The road remained blocked at the front of the peloton even as they started the Col de Tartaiguille with 52KM to go. The accord finally broke on the descent off of the Col de Tartaiguille. Decathlon CMA CGM was ripping the downhill with Lidl-Trek and TotalEnergies and the gap plummeted to just 1 minute with 42KM to go. The pace went up another level as Visma-Lease a Bike went to the front at the base of the Col de la Grande Limite in the village of Marsanne with 41KM remaining. Lidl-Trek rode the second half of the climb hard enough to bring the break back, catching Retailleau as the last surviving member about 1,300M from the top. The first attack came from Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, with Ben Tulett of Visma-Lease a Bike and Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious straight on the Dane's wheel.
Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost was left to do the chasing himself but had a 15 second deficit to close by the top with at least 45 riders still in contact behind him. Martinez and Tulett started swapping turns with Skjelmose when the descent flattened out. UAE-XRG put Igor Arrieta on the front to chase and he had the three leaders at just 10 seconds at the base of the Côte des Roberts with 28KM to go. Martinez dropped from the front group under the pressure put on by Skjelmose. When Arrieta finally pulled off, Jan Christen attacked and closed down Skjelmose and Tulett to just a few bike lengths. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike jumped across the gap and brought with him Alex Aranburu of Cofidis, Christian Scaroni and Clément Champoussin of XDS-Astana, and Martinez. Over the top, Skjelmose latched on as did Christen and his teammate Benoît Cosnefroy, Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ United, Quinten Hermans of Pinarello Q36.5, and Tulett and Davide Piganzoli to make three Visma-Lease a Bike riders at the front.
On the Côte de Grane with 21KM to go, someone left the wheel go to Piganzoli who got a gap. He kept his power down and the rest of the group slowed, allowing Jefferson Cepeda of Movistar to get on with the EF-Education EasyPost led peloton just another 15 seconds back. Cosnefroy railed the narrow, twisting descent and caught Piganzoli by the bottom. The front group of twelve were together at the bottom until Jorgenson sent a counter attack that was followed by Grégoire. Grégoire rolled turns with Jorgenson and they opened a big gap to the rest of the group. It wasn't long before the peloton caught the Skjelmose/Christen group and an attack came straightaway from Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek with Cepeda on his wheel. Jorgenson and Grégoire went up and over the Mur d'Allex with 25 seconds on an attacking Cosnefroy who went passed Simmons and Cepeda on the uphill ramp.
Cosnefroy got within 20 seconds but by the top of the Plateau Soulier through the flowering Almond groves with 10KM, he was starting to labor and drifted backwards. Jorgenson and Grégoire worked seamlessly together and still had 25 seconds on Cosnefroy and 40 seconds on the peloton with 5KM to go. Cosnefroy was caught by the peloton with 3KM to go as Decathlon CMA CGM were doing everything in their power to bring the race back together. EF-Education Easy Post lent a hand and had Jorgenson and Grégoire at 20 seconds as the road tipped up to the line under 1KM to go. The speed in the peloton was visibly quicker and the two leaders started to look at each other a bit more than would be advised. Jorgenson led until about 300M to go when Grégoire attacked. The peloton were only 15M behind but Grégoire had enough power left in his legs to carry his speed the whole way to the line to take victory, making it two for two for French riders on the weekend. Jorgenson was forced to settle for second with Lenny Martinez sprinting in for third, just 2 seconds later ahead of Hermans and Paul Lapeira of Decathlon CMA CGM.
Tags: Faun Drome Classic, 2026, March, Étoile-sur-Rhône, Arnaud Tendon, Kenny Molly, Sjoerd Bax, Jonas Walton, Valentin Retailleau, Javier Ibáñez, Tom Mainguenaud, Mattias Skjelmose, Ben Tulett, Lenny Martinez, Ben Healy, Igor Arrieta, Jan Christen, Matteo Jorgenson, Alex Aranburu, Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Benoît Cosnefroy, Romain Grégoire, Quinten Hermans, Davide Piganzoli, Jefferson Cepeda, Quinn Simmons