photo credits @ Le Tour
Despite being dropped over every climb of the day, Jonathan Milan won stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné today, beating not only Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a sprint finish in Issoire, but also wresting the yellow and white leader’s jersey from Tadej Pogacar.
Earlier, the stage’s uphill start inspired some attacks early on, but it wasn’t until after 8km that Paul Ourselin (Cofidis) finally rode clear, later taking the KOM points atop the Côte de la Font Nanaud, Côte de Saint-Priest-des-Champs, Côte des Rivauds and Côte de Saint Jacques d’Ambur to all but secure the polka-dot jersey for another day.
Meanwhile, back in the peloton, several riders tried to bridge their way to Ourselin, but the French rider continued to remain out front with a sizable gap of 5:05 as he crested the Côte de Saint Jacques d’Ambur. However, his advantage later drop to 1:15 at the intermediate sprint in Olby (km 102), halfway through the stage.
Shortly thereafter, Romain Combaud (Picnic PostNL), Victor Guernalec (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco AlUla) reined in Ourselin at the 106km mark, while the peloton trailed by only 20-seconds. Still, the quartet managed to stretch its lead back out to 1:35’ with 70 km to go.
Jensen decided to up the pace along the main ascent of the day, the Côte du Château de Buron, with Guernalec the first over summit, while Ourselin and Combaud were caught by the peloton.
With 55km to go, Milan found himself dropped, but after a 10km pursuit with his four Lidl-Trek teammates, the Italian rider made his way back into the fold as the race enter the final 42.9km circuit.
Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL) later attacked up the Côte de Nonette, subsequently opening a slight margin of 8-seconds at the summit, only to extend his lead to 20-seconds. But, the Frenchman was eventually reeled in with just under 10km remaining.
Lidl-Trek took over the helm inside the last 3km, with Van der Poel closely marking Milan’s wheel. But, nobody could match the Italian’s power when he put the hammer down, relegating Wright and his Dutch rival to second and third place, respectively.
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