They held on, right until the end, and showed once again that cycling, at the highest level, is a beautiful team effort. At Cofidis, everyone had one mission: to fight for Simon Geschke's Best Climber jersey. As expected, the battle started in the first kilometers, at nearly 50 km/h on the flat. The battle with multiple attacks in order to be in a good position before the climbs took place.
At the start, Anthony Pérez was spotted in the first breakaway attempt. A little later, it was Benjamin Thomas who fought to reduce the gap by bringing Simon along. Then Pierre-Luc Périchon did a particularly valuable job. He was at the side of the German in the ascent of the Col d'Aspin. This allowed Simon to get 6 points at the top. Further on, at Hourquette d'Anzan, Pierre-Luc was still there. But less than a kilometer from the summit, Simon had a technical problem with his bike and could not pocket any points.
Despite a long attempt to catch up with the leaders, Pierre-Luc Périchon and Simon Geschke were then caught by the leaders. He now has 64 points and is ahead of yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard and Giulio Ciccone. The battle will be even more intense tomorrow in the Pyrenees where everything can change at any moment.
