Aranburu in tears after win, but what does loser Grégoire think? "He took the lead because of the roundabout"

And maybe that’s fine with him. “It’s a very strange feeling, I don’t necessarily feel like I won,” Grégoire told Cyclism'Actu. “Someone crossed the line ahead of me, so it’s quite frustrating, even though I think he only got the lead because of the roundabout. I believe the stewards did their job. They decided he shouldn’t have gone to the right, that’s just how it is. I didn’t interfere with the jury’s decision, and in the end, it’s still a win, so it is what it is.”

In the final kilometers, the Frenchman saw Aranburu take the wrong route, but managed, with a bit of luck, to go the right way himself. “I didn’t have time to check if there was a marshal; I just followed the wheels of Almeida and Lipowitz, who were right in front of me. I saw we were turning left and that we were closing the gap to him. Then suddenly he had a three-second lead again, so I think that was the decisive moment.”

It would have been Grégoire’s second win of the year—and the first was just as strange. In the Faun-Ardèche Classic, he crossed the line first after his breakaway companions took a wrong turn. “So that’s already two wins, even if both were a bit odd, the first one too, but hey, two wins are still two wins, and that’s just a relief. After the first, I told myself: I need to get one that’s clear, one that’s not up for debate. And now with the second, there’s still controversy. So that’ll just motivate me to go out and win again.”

The 22-year-old talent is having a great season: in Milan–San Remo, he was able to hang on with Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, and Filippo Ganna on the Cipressa. “It’s progress, but I think that’s normal as I keep ramping up the pace, as they say. I’m getting a little better at handling the WorldTour tempo when it’s super fast all day, and it especially allows me to use my punch in the finale, like I did today. So that feels good. I see that I’m progressing steadily, and I have no intention of stopping now.”

It stirred up plenty of emotion at Cofidis. In the end, Alex Aranburu was declared the winner after a long period of uncertainty. “Of course, it was a difficult decision,” team director Bingen Fernández told Cycling Pro Net. “Normally, you follow the route book, and we knew the roundabout was supposed to be taken on the right side. The rider is from this area, and he studied all the roundabouts because he wanted to know exactly how the finale would play out. In the last 1.5 kilometers, he suddenly saw that the roundabout was half open. Naturally, he took the right side. He did the right thing because the route book said that’s what he was supposed to do. And that is the bible of cycling.”

Justice has prevailed, the Spaniard believes. “There was a lot of debate, but the route book remained the guiding document. And besides, he was simply the strongest rider.” The eventual winner was clearly overcome with emotion. With tears in his eyes, he rode back to the hotel. “He was happy and angry at the same time. Because he had won, then hadn’t, then had again. It’s really tough. In the end, we’re happy with the win, but it wasn’t a victory in normal circumstances.”