Pierre Rolland shook off any leftover fatigue from the Giro d'Italia, and just three weeks after his triumph in Canazei, the Cannondale-Drapac rider was at it again, soaring to a summit stage win at Gavarnie-Gèdre on the queen stage of the Route du Sud.
The Frenchman had lost almost six minutes on the opening stage, and finished next to last on stage 2, another 5:36 behind the stage winner Elia Viviani, but when the road tilted upward over the Col du Tourmalet, Rolland found his legs and rode away from all of his breakaway companions except Gianni Moscon (Sky).
When BMC's Silvan Dillier joined them on the final climb, Rolland saw his opportunity, and attacked with 4km to go and soloed to the stage win.
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"We never had a big advantage because there was Silvan Dillier from BMC, who was only 20 seconds back to the GC," Rolland said. "We approached the last climb with little advantage, but I just told myself that I had not done it all for nothing so I'm going as fast as possible.”
Rolland was part of a large breakaway that escaped even before the day's first climb of the Col du Tourmalet, the nearly 25km long category 1 ascent that serves as a Tour de France gauge of fitness. As their lead began to dwindle, Rolland attacked and drew out Moscon and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), but the latter could not hang onto the pace and dropped back.
Moscon and Rolland fought on the descent and the next climb, the category 2 Gaberisse, to fend off the chase from Dillier, but he finally made contact on the final category 1 climb, just before Rolland's final, successful surge.
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