Astana’s Vlasov 3rd in La Route D’Occitanie Stage 4 final classification

Vlasov attacked with around 600 meters to go to try to open a gap to his main rivals. He got a small advantage of 5 seconds, however, the leading group caught him back right before the finish line to play the stage in the sprint, won by the French rider Benoit Cosnefroy. Aleksandr Vlasov finished 5th, securing his place on the final podium.

«I am really happy with my performance in the first race after restart of the season. I did not know, what to expect after a long break, but looks like I was able to save my form or even to improve it a bit if we compare it with the start of the year. I think, that the work we did together with the team at the training camp paid off. It was a nice week in Occitanie and now I am looking forward to the Mont Ventoux Challenge. I hope to keep on progressing in the next week before my main goal of the season – the Giro d’Italia,» said Aleksandr Vlasov.

Earlier, with around 2.5 km to go Omar Fraile and Miguel Angel Lopez tried to escape from the group of leaders, launching a pair attack. But, it was neutralized inside the final kilometer of the stage.

The Colombian Egan Bernal became the overall winner of La Route d’Occitanie 2020, Pavel Sivakov took second place (+0.19), while Aleksand Vlasov completed the podium with third position (+0.23).