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Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) took a solo win on stage 2 of the Région Pays de la Loire Tour with an pressing assault throughout the ultimate kilometre which couldn’t be matched.
Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) led the big chase group of 34 riders for second place eight seconds again, whereas Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) took third.
Bonus seconds on the line put Costiou within the race chief’s jersey, now seven seconds behind stage 1 winner Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), who was in the primary chase group and crossed the road in twenty seventh. Kristian Sbaragli (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini) moved into third general with bonus factors from the breakaway, bumping Jon Aberasturi (Euskatel-Euskadi) all the way down to fourth by one second.
The 190.9km stage between Ezpeleta and Altsasu noticed three riders on the entrance of the race on the primary half of the second day of racing – Sbaraglia, Matisse Julien (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) and Joes Oosterlinck (Bingoal WB Devo Team).
The trio scooped up the intermediate dash and mountain classification factors, however weren’t a risk to Van den Berg’s general lead so had an extended leash. Once throughout the third KOM of the day, Route du Chemin de l’étang de Cunault, with below 50km to race, the peloton started to tug again the lengthy leash.
With 32km to go, the riders started the primary of 4 ending circuits in Saumur, and the main trio’s hole pale to below one minute, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale doing the vast majority of work on the entrance of the chase.
Just earlier than the ultimate circuit, the breakaway was again within the peloton, and Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) attacked, with eight different riders surging to his again wheel, together with race chief Van den Berg.
After the bell rang with below 8km to go, Cosnefroy attacked a second time on the brief climb of Haut rue Chèvre (common 12.2%). This time a smaller group shaped with Van den Berg, Alexandre Delettre (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). More riders joined the fray as soon as over the ultimate climb of Haut rue Chèvre, and it seemed like a big bunch dash would comply with.
The 21-year-old Costiou launched his successful transfer simply past the purple kite for 1km to go and left little doubt for his first win of the season.
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