{"id":1771229,"date":"2026-02-14T09:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1771229"},"modified":"2026-02-14T09:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:35:48","slug":"major-win-for-matthew-riccitello-amid-freezing-conditions-at-tour-de-la-provence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1771229","title":{"rendered":"Major Win for Matthew Riccitello amid Freezing Conditions at Tour de la Provence"},"content":{"rendered":"
Young American rider Matthew Riccitello has scooped the third victory of his career on Saturday, outsprinting Carlos Rodr\u00edguez to win stage two of the Tour de la Provence and to grab the overall lead.<\/p>\n
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Riccitello showed off his climbing flair in the finale, matching Ineos Grenadiers rider Rodriguez when he surged inside 4km to go and tracking the more experienced rider from there to the summit of the Montagne de Lure.<\/p>\n
The stakes were heightened when their teammates Brandon Smith Rivera and Aur\u00e9lien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon CMA GCM Team) set off in pursuit behind, closing to nine seconds back with 1km to go.<\/p>\n
Riccitello kept his cool and then floored it with 200 meters remaining. While Rodr\u00edguez chased all the way to the line, the 23 year old held him off by half a bike length.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt couldn\u2019t have gone any better,\u201d he said. \u201cThe team was perfect all day keeping me up there in good position. I am just really happy to finish it off. It is a great start with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained the tactics in the finale.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWith Aur\u00e9lien we knew we had two cards to play on this climb. If it was a really strong headwind and a reduced sprint, Aur\u00e9lien has a really fast kick. I knew he was behind, so I sat on because we had him for the sprint. It was complicated with Brandon Rivera, I know he is fast too. But we had two good options and I think we played it perfectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to launch the sprint early because it looked like Aurelien wasn\u2019t going to close in the last 200 meters. I think it was the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tight battle ahead for the general classification<\/h2>\nMatthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) holds the blue leader\u2019s jersey following his stage 2 victory at the Tour de la Provence (Photo: Billy Ceusters\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The victory was secured in freezing, windy conditions with plenty of snow close to the roadside. Recent Volta Comunitat Valenciana stage winner Andrew August was one of those driving the pace on the climb, trying to set things up for his Ineos Grenadiers team, but instead another US rider triumphed.<\/p>\n
It is Riccitello\u2019s first with his new Decathlon CMA CGM team and sees him seize the overall lead with one day to go.<\/p>\n
He is four seconds clear of Rodr\u00edguez, 20 seconds ahead of Rivera and 24 in front of Paret-Peintre.<\/p>\n
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Riccitello had won two races in his career prior to Saturday\u2019s triumph. He took stage two plus the overall classification in the Sibiu Cycling Tour last July, and is poised for another important GC win if Sunday\u2019s stage goes well.<\/p>\n
The 205.1km race from Rognac to Arles is far flatter, although it does include a second category climb inside the opening 51km plus a third category ascent just over 70km from the finish.<\/p>\n
A bunch sprint seems the most likely outcome, but the Ineos Grenadiers squad will do everything possible to try to wrest the leader\u2019s jersey off Riccitello.<\/p>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261629142.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated February 14, 2026 12:15PM Young American rider Matthew Riccitello has scooped the third victory of his career on Saturday, outsprinting Carlos Rodr\u00edguez to win stage two of the Tour de la Provence and to grab the overall lead. Riccitello showed off his climbing flair in the finale, matching Ineos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1771229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1771229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1771229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1771229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1771229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261629968.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")