Samuel Leroux (TotalEnergies) posted the best time on the stage 3 individual time trial at Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine and surprised the field by taking the overall lead with his victory.
Once in the hot seat of the 27.3km race against the clock, Leroux watched as 38 other riders failed to come close to his time of 33:03. Nicolas Milesi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), the best young rider with one stage to go, came closest at 22 seconds back. Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) finished third, another 2 seconds down.
Leroux vaulted 38 spots in the GC to take the race lead from Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who plummeted to 49th position, now 3:26 away. Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) remained second overall with a fifth-place finish in the ITT, now 20 seconds back. Milesi moved into third overall, 22 seconds back.
"From the start, I felt like I was on a fast pace. Having the time reference of Pierrot [Latour], who started before me, motivated me enormously," Leroux said on a team social post, translated from French. "I told the team at the beginning of the year that this was one of my goals, and I'm proud to have achieved it.
"This victory has a special meaning for me; it's especially dedicated to my uncle, who is ill. I'm thinking of him a lot and I'm happy to give it to him."
The victory was in some way a vindication for an overnight theft which left the team without 20 of their Enve bicycles, worth an estimated €300,000 by news reports. The team competed with their time trial bikes on Thursday.
"You shouldn't have angered him… " the team posted to X.com following the powerful demonstration of Leroux.
The Tour Poitou-Charentes has included an individual time trial each of the past 20 years. The 27.3km route for this edition followed a flat, northerly path between the two cities, which are just six kilometres apart. Time checks were positioned at kilometre 9 and again at kilometre 18.5, with one small climb averaging 5.8% out of the dip to cross the Vienne River that runs through western France.
Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was the first of the 99 riders to complete the course and set the benchmark at 38:23. That number did not hold for long and times dropped through a series of riders in the first half of the field.
Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) was the first rider to go under the 33-minute mark first and posted 33:32. His spot on the hotseat was threatened by Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Théo Delacroix (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), but they fell 3 and 6 seconds short, respectively.
The needle lowered to 33:03 by Leroux who took the hot seat from his teammate, averaging 49.6 kph. Nicolas Milesi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) were the next to go under 33 minutes, but were still more than 22 seconds back.
Leroux became comfortable with his long tenure in the hot seat continued with 26 more riders to follow Milesi. His time at the first checkpoint held at 11:04 once the GC leaders passed. Then his top time across the second checkpoint, 22:57, was also not matched.
The only rider in the top of the standings to pose a threat was Godon, who was 10th fastest at the first time check, but finish fifth on the stage, 30 seconds back.
The 30-year-old Frenchman held on for his first win of the season.
"Tomorrow, a great stage awaits us, with wind… And coming from the north, I'm used to it. We'll do everything we can to bring it back. We have a great group," the new GC leader said about the final stage on Friday.
