Enzo Paleni had a plan going into stage 3 of the Tour Down Under, which was not only to go into the breakaway but to play with the pacing of the group, to try and influence the chasing peloton and hopefully make it to the finish line. It almost worked.
The Groupama-FDJ United rider was caught in the final kilometre of the stage by the charging pack, who were determined to have a bunch sprint.
It wasn’t the first attempt for the Frenchman this week. On stage 1, he was, once again, the last man standing when he was reeled in with seven kilometres to go.
“I like the art of the breakaway, so every time I go in, I try to go to the end. I don’t care about the polka dot jersey or the sprint [jersey]. My goal is to go to the end, so I try all I can. I knew it was gonna be hard,” Paleni told Seven at the finish in Nairne.
For the hilly stage 3, Paleni had a plan as he wanted to take advantage of the tailwind in the final 10 kilometres. To do so, he needed a few strong riders. The 23-year-old was the first to make the move, at kilometre zero, and he was soon joined by compatriot Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and KOM leader Marian Urianstad (Uno-X Mobility).
“t’s always better because you can ride together. Luckily, we had the KOM jersey. So he wanted the points, we let him, and then one of the French guys, Veistroffer. I told him yesterday, let’s go to the breakaway, we can make it.”
“We pace a lot during all the stages, until then we slow down quite hard, from 55 kilometres to 40 to slow down the bunch and then go hard for the last hour,” he explained.
“The bunch caught me 800 metres to go. It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, ” Paleni said with a chuckle, “so I will give it a try again,…
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