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Sam Bennett secured his first win of the season beneath the colors of his new crew Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team on stage 2 on the 4 Jours de Dunkerque.
Bennett sprinted to victory forward of runner-up Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) and third-placed Sasha Weemaes (Bingoal WB) in Abbeville.
The peloton caught the final remaining breakaway rider Cyrus Monk (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) with 9km to go earlier than organising their respective lead-out trains for the dash end.
Monk was a part of an preliminary breakaway of three that gained greater than eight minutes on the sphere.
Bennett moved into the general race lead with 4 seconds forward of Milan Fretin (Cofidis) and eight seconds forward of Penhoët because the race heads into stage 3 on Thursday.
How it unfolded
The second stage on the 4 Jours de Dunkerque was a 183.3km race from Wimereux to Abbeville with 5 categorised climbs earlier than a Huplandre, Le Haut Pichot, and Frencq, adopted by two intermediate sprints earlier than the ultimate two climbs Quesnoy-le-Montant and Moyenneville and run-in to Abbeville.
A trio emerged off the entrance of the pack simply 30km into the race with Maxime Jarnet (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Robin Plamondon (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) and Cyrus Monk (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) constructing a result in greater than eight minutes.
Gwen Leclainche (Philippe Wagner/Bazin) tried to bridge throughout however could not join with the breakaway riders and ended up caught in no-man’s land till he was caught with 120km to go.
Lotto Dstny, Cofidis, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale did the lion’s share of the pace-setting on the entrance of the peloton.
As the trio raced nearer to the end, the hole dropped to beneath two minutes, and Monk launched a solo assault at 40km out, distancing each Plamondon and Jarnet.
The pair of chasers had been caught with 26km remaining, however Monk pressed on to take care of his solo lead of 1:20.
Monk’s hole was slashed to simply 15 seconds with inside 20km from the end, and his valiant effort within the day-long breakaway got here to an finish with 9km to go. From there the trail was clear for the sprinters’ groups to organise their respective lead-outs.
Results
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