Greig Leach

After the intermediate sprint riders from TotalEnergies tried to go on the attack but were immediately covered by Lidl-Trek's Quinn Simmons. When that was happening Romain Secard (the TotalEnergies directeur sportif) was on the radio telling his guys that "We have the right to race." He was basically telling his team screw Lidl-Trek, they are going to race the way they want to race. I guess Mathieu Burgaudeau and Matteo Vercher got the message and jumped from a bit further down the peloton. By so doing, they were already at full speed before anyone saw them attack. The teammates build up almost a minute advantage as they went under one of the many advertisings banners out on course. I am sure the sprinters aren't going to let them stay off the front for too long, they were hoping to claim stage honors for themselves.