The imperious Tadej Pogacar proved his superiority over the entire peloton once again with a dominant ride - 75km of which solo - to become European champion for the first time.
Remco Evenepoel took silver behind the Slovenian in a carbon copy of last month’s World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, with the Belgian obviously best of the rest as he soloed home 31 seconds after Pogacar in Guilherand-Granges.
French wunderkind Paul Seixas - only competing in his first full pro season - rounded off the podium, finishing three minutes and 41 seconds down on the winner at the end of a hilly 202.5km route through France’s Drome-Ardeche region.
Pogacar said: “I find myself in the front and I tried to keep a good gap, around one minute, it’s a comfortable gap. I don’t think it was super dominant, Remco was super good and always chasing me. I could not give up until the finish line. I’m happy it’s over and another title!”
The race had been billed as a three-way battle between the peloton’s three heaviest hitters, Pogacar, Evenepoel, and newly-crowned Vuelta a Espana champion Jonas Vingegaard, racing in Danish national colours for the first time at elite level.
But Vingegaard, having not finished a one-day race since Il Lombardia in 2022, was out of his depth and was dropped with more than 100km to go, ultimately abandoning the race as he struggled on the punchy terrain.
Belgium and France attempted to isolate Pogacar from his Slovenian teammates in the first half of the race, with repeated attacks successfully distancing the threat of Portugal’s Joao Almeida, but unable to inflict any damage to their main target, Pogacar himself.
Evenepoel then attacked on the third and final passage of the race’s biggest climb, the 7km Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps, but Pogacar stayed glued to his wheel before countering on the steepest gradients of the climb.
With 75km left to race the world champion was on his own, quickly establishing a 30-second gap to his pursuers: Evenepoel, Seixas, Italy’s Christian Scaroni, and Spain’s Juan Ayuso.
While that gap came down to 22 seconds at one point, inside the final quarter of the race it had ballooned out to over a minute as Pogacar time-trialled himself to the finish line.
As at the World Championships Evenepoel looked by far the strongest of the chasing quartet and in the final few hundred metres of the short but steep Côte de Val d’Enfer, with 38km to go, he burst away from his companions. That attack galvanised the remaining three, who began to work well together, but the three-time world time trial champion was quickly out of sight and ultimately finished over three minutes clear of Seixas.
The 19-year-old, who was born just 86km away in Lyon, managed to drop Ayuso with 5km remaining - to the delight of the masses of French fans at the roadside - and while Scaroni dug deep to remain on his wheel on the final climb, the Frenchman distanced him on the final descent and celebrated a brilliant bronze medal like a win as he came across the line.
Saturday’s women’s race was won in dominant fashion by the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering, the pre-race favourite, with teammate Anna van der Breggen taking bronze behind Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma.
Former Tour de France champion Vollering attacked just before the summit of the Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps, surging clear over the top and going solo for the remaining 37km to seal the European title.
“I'm really proud to take the jersey home for the Dutch team, because we did the perfect race today together,” Vollering said afterwards.
“I wanted to try to go early and do the last part all by myself, to be sure of the victory. And also, because we did such a good race with the whole team, I really wanted to finish it off for them.”
An elite group of Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, and Van der Breggen set off in pursuit, although Longo Borghini was distanced on the descent to ensure that the podium was decided - although not necessarily the order.
Dutchwoman Van der Breggen provided no assistance to Niewiadoma’s chase and hung back as the Pole sprinted for silver, later saying, “If I’ve been sitting on someone’s wheel for that long, I’m not going to steal the medal from her at the finish.
“The main goal was the victory with Demi. That I ended up completing the podium with bronze is a nice bonus and the result of a strong team.”
Victory for Vollering means the Dutch have now won nine of the 10 European road races since its introduction to the cycling calendar, with their incredible team strength and intelligent tactical approach putting their rivals to the sword in Drome-Ardeche.
The pre-race favourites came away empty-handed in September’s World Championships in Kigali, with criticism levelled at their tactics as the major teams cancelled each other out and failed to bring back the escapees that eventually took the medals.
There was no danger of that in France as the Netherlands controlled proceedings on the short, punchy 116.1km course, and Vollering again proved her strength on the biggest climbs to ride everyone else off her wheel.
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