photo credits @ Le Tour
Arnaud Démare (FDJ) won the bunch sprint in today’s stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, easily outsprinteding Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) in Arlanc.
Meanwhile, Thomas De Gendt finished safely in the peloton to retained his lead in the overall classification.
Race Highlights
Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mickaël Delage (FDJ), Nathan Brown (Cannondale-Drapac) and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), marked the day’s first breakaway effort.
From there, the quartet went on to establish a maximum advantage of 3:35 over the peloton.
Delage was the first escapee to get dropped from the group, with 142 kilometers remaining.
Back in the chase, Astana was busy turning up the pace in earnest, as they succeeded in reducing the breakaway group’s lead to just 1:30, while at the same time allowing their rider Alexey Lutsenko to bridge his way to the three leaders with 72 kilometers to go.
Not long after, Lutsenko decided to attack his breakaway companions, going solo with 30 kilometers remaining.
Bowman and Combaud were subsequently reeled in by the peloton, while Lutsenko continued to remain out front with a gap of around a minute.
However, the Kazakhstan rider was eventually caught during the last 3 kilometers, as the race began shaping up for an inevitable sprint finale, with Démare emerging as the strongest rider.
Top 20 Finishers
1 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 4:13:53 2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin 3 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 4 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 5 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb 6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 7 Ben Swift (GBr) UAE Team Emirates 8 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 9 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 10 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie 11 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 12 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 13 Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Arg) Quick-Step Floors 14 Dion Smith (NZl) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 15 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 16 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 17 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 18 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 19 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal 20 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
General Classification after stage 2
1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 8:30:47 2 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:48 3 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:03 4 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:07 5 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 6 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:09 7 Ben Swift (GBr) UAE Team Emirates 8 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 9 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 10 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 11 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal 12 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 13 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 14 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 15 Simon Clarke (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac 16 Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 17 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 18 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 19 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 20 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
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