Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) received stage 2 on the Boucles de la Mayenne with a solo assault 8.5km from the road in Villaines-la-Juhel.
From the trio of chasers ending 17 seconds behind, Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) completed second forward of Alexandre Delettre (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) leaving Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in fourth.
Bettiol made his transfer with 8.5km remaining to the end, throughout the fourth and last climb of Côte des Égoutelles, and added a second victory for the season.
The Italian took over the GC lead, with a 23-second lead over Cosnefroy. Ale Zingle (Cofidis) was third, one other 5 seconds again
How it unfolded
The first group of riders to set off in Le Ham throughout the early kilometres of the hilly 208.8km stage to Villaines-la-Juhe, which included Jan Maas (Jayco AlUla), Alex Martín (Polti Kometa), Emmanuel Morin (VRR) and Artus Jaladeau (UCN). With 185 to go, Owsian Lukasz (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Jonathan Couanon (Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur) tagged alongside and the six have been set for a full day. Once the six hit stride, that they had a 3:45 hole with 180km to go.
The race settled into a gentle rhythm because the breakaway held their lead throughout the primary three categorised climbs. Once on the mid-point of the fixed ups and downs, the route went up a shorter part of the Côte des Égoutelles (1.6km at 6.5%) land headed to complete circuits.
With 50km to go, the benefit of the six leaders had light from 2:16 to simply 35 seconds within the final 25km, the primary chase group elevated the tempo over the second full cross of Côte des Égoutelles (2.3km at 5.7%). Morin rolled backwards and dropped from the entrance.
As the six rolled throughout extra rollers to the third of 4 circuits that included the Égoutelles, assaults by three riders – Iván Romeo (Movistar), Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla) and Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) – have been rewarded by catching on to the leaders.
Hearing the bell ring for the ultimate 21km, 5 riders remained on the entrance, Maas having dropped again to the peloton. The carrot dangling forward was bonus factors for the ultimate ascent of the Égoutelles, and the chase behind was solely 20 seconds again as soon as the breakaway riders hit the underside of the ultimate ascent.
Just earlier than the crest of the Égoutelles, Romeo was the one man left standing on the entrance from the break and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) made the cross on a solo assault with 8.5km remaining to the end.
Counter-attacks adopted on the descent by Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) after which Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Alexandre Delettre (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93). But Bettiol sailed away and the trio have been left to combat for the ultimate backside steps of the rostrum.
Results
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