After a successful Tour de France with two stage wins, the mountains classification and the combativity prize, EF Education-EasyPost struck again in the opening stage of the Tour de l'Ain, with Noah Hobbs winning the bunch sprint and taking the first leader's jersey in Bourg-en-Bresse.
Hobbs beat Alberto Dainese (Soudal-Quickstep) and Bohémond Barrillot (France) at the conclusion of the 160.9-kilometre stage from Parc des Oiseaux that was dominated by two separate breakaways.
The early move with Morné Van Niekerk (St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93), Maël Guégan (CIC), Patryk Goszczurny (Visma-Lease a Bike Devo) and Maxime Jarnet (Van Rysel-Roubaix) never gained much more than a minute, and were caught with 52km to go.
A counter-move came from Kenny Molly (Van Rysel-Roubaix), who was joined by Maximilien Juillard (Velo Club Villefranche Beaujolais) and Victor Jean (Elite Foundations). However, Molly lost contact with 14km to go and the remaining two were swept up in the final 5km.
