Alexis Ryan sprinted to victory this morning on the opening day of Tour de l’Ardéche in Beauchastel, France. While Ryan takes the lead in the overall classification, her teammate Tanja Erath leads the Rush Classification.

The double stage day started with a 65km stage one from Saint Marcel d’Ardéche to Beauchastel early this morning. Ryan said her teammates timed the lead out to perfection.

“It was a short, flat, aggressive stage. Our team plan was for Tanja to go for the intermediate sprints,” said Ryan.

“The girls kept me protected and managed the gap between the final breakaway so that we would make the catch right before the finish. Kasia (Niewiadoma) started our lead out with a couple of kilometres to go. Tiff (Cromwell) took over at 300m, and I launched at 150m to go.”

“The win was timed to perfection! We’re really happy to start the tour off like this, and hope it continues to be a great week,” added Ryan.

While Ryan celebrated her win, so too did 2017 Zwift Academy winner, Tanja Erath after taking the lead in the Rush Classification.

“This is cool!” said an elated Erath referring to her jersey win.

“The Dutch team were leading out their rider with a full lead out for the first intermediate sprint. I took the inside corner and got a nice run, finishing just a tyre width behind in second place. I won the next intermediate sprint.”

“I was hoping to be able to win a jersey and get on the podium this season. But after being sick after track nationals and then not feeling I was getting back to my best, I started to think it wasn’t going to happen. I’m super happy to take the jersey this morning. Let’s see what happens in this afternoon’s stage,” said Erath.

Stage two, a short and bound to be aggressive stage is 55km from Saint Fortunat-Sur-Eyrieux to Craus. The stage starts in less than two hours, at 15:30 CEST.

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