Jason Tesson (TotalEnergies) threw his bike across the line alongside proven sprinter Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), with a photo review needed to tip the victory to Tesson on stage 1 of Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine.
Démare raised his arms in a momentary celebration, which would have been his preferred outcome on his 34th birthday, but he said he knew he was denied by his fellow Frenchman. It would have been Démare's 10th win at the French stage race.
“I knew I was second once I crossed the line. I'm disappointed," Démare said in a team statement after the race.
"Physically, I was good. I lacked confidence. My strength is pushing from afar, and here, I waited for it to start. A sprint requires a lot of confidence and gaining a grip on your opponents. That's what I lacked on this first stage. But there will be other opportunities.”
Joren Bloem (Unibet Tietema Rockets) edged Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) for third place.
Tesson goes into stage 2 with the GC lead, just one second ahead of Lewis Bower (Groupama-FDJ), who was in the day's breakaway and scooped up bonus seconds at intermediate sprints along the way. Démare sits third, four seconds back.
The four-day race opened with the longest route of the week, 193.3km from Sauzé-Entre-Bois to La Genétouze. Once across the first pair of intermediate sprints, five categorised climbs punctuated the rolling route, with just one additional sprint point at Chantillac on the approach to the finish circuit in La Genétouze.
The climbs of the day included Côte de Burie (900 metres at 4.7%), Côte de Sainte-Lheurine (500 metres at 6.6%) and Côte de Saint-Maigrin (500 metres at 5.4%) on the southward journey from the start, and then back-to-back punchy climbs of Côte de la Croix de Chiron (500 metres at 5.3%) and Côte de Boscammant (1km at 4.2%) on the one-lap circuit.
Just two kilometres into the race a quartet of riders forged ahead with a gap - Bower, Maël Guégan (CIC-U-Nantes), Wessel Mouris (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Niek Voogt (Parkhotel Valkenburg). The group cruised across 100km holding a margin of close to three minutes, the peloton behind led by Cofids and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale waiting patiently as they edged southward in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
With 42km to go, Bower was the first in the lead group to take his foot off the accelerator and drop back to the peloton. He had taken all bonus points and 9 bonus seconds across the three intermediate sprints, including early sprints in Loubigné and Fontaine-Chalendray, and his job was done.
The local circuit began with the two final climbs ahead and 26.5km remaining. The leading trio began to lose time as they passed over Croix de Chiron and once across the Boscammant it was time for the peloton to take over.
Teams used the final 10km to position their sprinters, played out with a photo finish that went to TotalEnergies' Tesson, his first victory in a year.
