A double at the top of Mont Ventoux: Ruben Guerreiro won the fourth edition of the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge on Tuesday by beating at the top of the “Giant of Provence” his teammate and leader within the EF-Education formation, the Colombian Esteban Chaves.
The Portuguese started alone at the start of the second climb of Ventoux and finally won at the end of the 154 kilometers of the course with 53 seconds ahead of Chaves, winner of the Tour of Lombardy 2016. While Guerreiro rushed towards victory , Chaves stayed behind Australian Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) for a long time, finally third at 1:28 behind the Portuguese.
«It’s really great, we had a very good team performance. It’s a magnificent race with this superb finish at Ventoux“said Guerreiro at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel. “I’ve had a lot of bad luck for 18 months and this victory shows that I deserve a little more. The team also had to get results and we did that at Dauphiné and here, so we are very happy“, he added.
While two complete ascents of Ventoux were on the program of the race, the first by Sault and the second by Bédoin, everything was decided in the last 15 kilometers. Under a very strong heat, the Israel-PT team had however hardened the rhythm from the first climb, but its Canadian leader Michael Woods cracked at the start of the last ascent.
Guerreiro succeeds Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez, who won the event last year. Among the women, it was the Italian Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) who won the first women’s edition.