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Tour de France

Zimmermann (6th) sprints for the win in Megève

German rider Georg Zimmermann defended the colors of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux in the front of the race this Tuesday, during the tenth stage of the Tour de France. 

One day after the second rest day, the riders left Morzine to cover three relatively short climbs on their way to the final climb to the Altiport de Megève, where the finish line was drawn at an altitude of 1435 meter.

In his second Tour de France with the Belgian team, Zimmermann joined the right breakaway of 25 riders and this, after a battle of more than one hour in which also Sven Erik Bystrøm and Andrea Pasqualon participated.

Once the leading group was formed, the gap immediately increased above six minutes with 50 kilometer to go and then above 8 minutes at the foot of the climb towards Megève.

At the beginning of this final difficulty, Zimmermann attacked twice in duo until he finally was part of a group of twelve with 9 kilometer to go.

Nobody managed to make a difference in a tactical final, so this group sprinted for the victory in the last uphill straight. Zimmermann left it all out there and finished sixth.

One year ago, it was also from a breakaway that Zimmermann achieved a top ten in La Grande Boucle. He finished eighth in Libourne after an effort of 200 kilometer in the front of the race.

« I circled this tenth stage in the road book. Because the course suited me, but also because my family would be present. Hearing them screaming my name from the crowd was fantastic. I'm happy that my aggressive racing style since the beginning of this Tour de France was rewarded today with a ticket for an interesting breakaway. » « After a very intense first race half, we received a moment to take a breath, to feed and to think about the strategy. The leading group was big, I was avid for a result and I wanted to avoid running behind the facts. So I raced proactively and attacked twice. This took me some energy, but in the end these tactics enabled me to sprint for the victory. » « Sprinting against riders like Magnus Cort is far from ideal and even though I hoped to do better than sixth place, I'm proud about what I achieved in such a mountain stage in the Tour de France, because I really had to dig deep in the final kilometers. The 15 seconds I lost in the final 300 meter motivate me to continue working hard, they push me to progress and to finish closer to the victory in the future. »

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