Étoile de Bessèges stage 2

Timothy Dupont takes the win after a crash effected finale whilst Christophe Laporte adds two seconds to his general classification lead, Jake Stewart leads best young rider comp.

Étoile de Bessèges stage 2:

Timothy Dupont takes the win after a crash affected finale whilst Christophe Laporte adds two seconds to his general classification lead, Jake Stewart leads best young rider comp.

The stage was almost 100 miles in length and the last 30 or so miles were in the rain. A five man breakaway dominated the stage until the KOM with 47km to go when they ceased to work with each other. Ludovic Robeet then went solo from the breakaway and was given some leeway by the peloton, gaining as much as two minutes on the peloton lead by Cofidis and Total Direct Énergie.

As the finish approached and into the last 20 kilometres, Ineos brought Egan Bernal to the front while Trek-Segafredo shepparded former World champion Mads Pederson also the front. The lone leader Robeet was caught with 10km to go. Geraint Thomas and Vincenzo Nibali were trying to keep safe at the front of the fast moving peloton whilst Teams B&B Hotels, Ineos-Grenadiers, Trek-Segafredo, and Arkéa-Samsic controlled the front of the peloton with 5 kilometres to go.

With almost 4km to go, a crash took down Britain’s Ethan Hayter and then another crash with 400m to go caused chaos allowing Dupont, Barbier, Nizzolo, and stage 1 winner Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) to get clear of the rest as they launched the sprint early, Dupont first to the line in a photo finish.

“It was a copy and paste of yesterday,” summarized FDJ’s Thierry Bricaud. After his top 10 yesterday (9th), Jake Stewart was 24th in the same time as the winner after being delayed by the second crash but coming out of the stage as leader of the young rider classification (13th overall).

“The final was hot and stormy,” Thierry recounted. Jake managed to remain upright whilst those around him fell and was positioned to go for a sprint on a slightly rising finish that suited him but due to having to brake, Jake was unable to join in the sprint and therefore crossed the line in 24th position.

1. Timothy Dupont Bingoal WB 3:35:15
2. Pierre Barbier Delko
3. Giacomo Nizzolo Team Qhubeka ASSOS
4. Rudy Barbier Israel Start-Up Nation
5. Christophe Laporte Cofidis
6. Nacer Bouhanni Team Arkéa-Samsic
7. Marc Sarreau AG2R Citroën Team
8. Gerben Thijssen Lotto Soudal
9. Silvan Dillier Alpecin-Fenix
10. Edward Theuns Trek-Segafredo

24. Jake Stewart
52. Ryan Mullen
58. Geraint Thomas
74. Connor Swift
85. Owain Doull
95. Dan McLay
124. Chris Lawless
140. Ethan Hayter (crashed but remounted & finished)

Full result here