Postive day out for TNN on stage two of the Loire Tour

Team Novo Nordisk’s Filippo Ridolfo came home in 28th place on the second stage of the Région Pays de la Loire Tour, as the peloton navigated 153.6 kilometres through the Vendée countryside to the Atlantic coast at Les Sables-d’Olonne.

The stage was the flattest of the four-day race, with the rolling bocage landscape giving way to open coastal roads in the closing kilometres. While the profile was benign, the ever-present Atlantic wind kept teams alert throughout, threatening to split the peloton on exposed stretches as the race approached the shoreline. The sprinters’ teams worked hard to keep the race together tworads the end, setting up a fast and hectic finale on the seafront.

Ridolfo and his teammates rode a controlled race, the Italian positioned safely in the bunch as the peloton drove hard towards Les Sables-d’Olonne. Despite the flat profile suiting the pure sprinters, the 24-year-old worked hard in the frantic closing kilometres to cross the line in 28th, continuing to build his form and race rhythm during this block of French racing.

“It was a very similar day to yesterday,” said Ridolfo. “The break took a while to go and once it did the bunch never let it go past one and a half minutes. There was a crash with around 20km to go that increased the tension and Andrea was cuaght behind it and jhad to chase back in.”

“I didn’t have the best positioning there at the end and spent too much energy to make up some ground, but overall it was another fairly positive day. Tomorrow will be tougher and the final could suit me more with some punchy terrain.”

The result follows Ridolfo’s encouraging 12th place finish on Stage 1 in Vertou, and the team will look ahead with confidence to the more challenging terrain that awaits in Stage 3 — a demanding 199km ride from Avrillé to Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes.