Alaphilippe, Hindley to Grab Alto Opening Weekend at Boucle Drome Aldesh

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Alaphilippe, Hindley to Grab Alto Opening Weekend at Boucle Drome Aldesh

This weekend's doubleheader is not the only one of note: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne may continue to draw attention, but the twin races at Boucles Drôme Ardèche are Julien Alaphilippe, Jai Hindley, Romain Bardet, and others, and it has once again drawn two of the best early-season fields, including contenders in southeastern France.

Saturday's Von Ardèche Classic will be centered on Guilherin Grange, where some 3,100 meters of climbing await over the course of 168 km.

A day later, riders will tackle the hilly course around Etoile-sur-Rhône in the Font Drome Classic, a 191-km event that boasts 17 climbs totaling 2,400 meters and a short but steep climb to the finish at Côte Chaudes. [Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) won the Ardèche Classic solo, followed the next day by Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) in the Drome Classic. [McNulty will start the season on the UAE Tour and Vingegaard on the Gran Camino in Galicia this week. Nevertheless, this weekend's Drome and Ardèche will feature a talented field, with Alaphilippe leading the way.

After a disappointing finish to the 2022 season, Alaphilippe faced a barrage of harsh criticism from Sourdal-Quickstep coach Patrick Lefebvre during the winter months; he started the season with a three-day race in Majorca in late January, but this weekend will be the real start of the spring campaign.

Alaphilippe, who finished fifth in last year's Drome Classic, will be looking to make a run here in preparation for the following weekend's Strade Bianche. In fact, Alaphilippe plans to race every weekend from here until the end of April, with the exception of Paris-Roubaix.

Romain Bardet (DSM) started the season by finishing eighth overall in the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var last week. He won the 2018 Ardèche Classic and the Drome Classic four years ago.

Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro d'Italia champion who finished 13th overall in last week's Volta ao Algarve, returns to action in France this weekend with a strong Bora-Hansgrohe team that includes Sergio Iguita.

David Gaudou (Groupama-FDJ), winner of the 2021 Ardèche Classic, is also in Paris-Nice, as is Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), who finished second behind Vingegaard in last year's Drome Classic.

Others in the field this weekend include newly crowned Colombian champion Esteban Chaves (EF Education-Easy Post), Ben O'Connor (AG2R-Citroën), George Bennett, Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Rui Costa ( Intermarque-Wanty-Gobert) and others.

This weekend's Omloop and Coone will be carefully scrutinized with the Cobbled Classics in mind, but as recent history has shown, events in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region tend to give a clear indication of who will shine in late spring and even in the height of summer.

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