Criterium du Dauphine: Demare sprints to stage 2 victory

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Arnaud Demare (FDJ) was the fastest man into Arlanc, taking victory on stage 2 of the Criterium du Dauphine. The Frenchman stormed up the right-hand side of the road to take a clear victory over Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin), with Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) rounding out the podium.

Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) finished safely in the pack to keep hold of his race lead for at least another day.

From a long way out, it seemed that the day would end with a bunch sprint. It was still a messy affair with Katusha the only team able to put something that resembled a sprint train together in the finale. The effort wasn’t enough for Kristoff, who launched his sprint early, only to be overtaken by a surging Demare.

Demare, put into position by a teammate with around 500 metres to go, came past four riders and still had plenty of room to spare by the time he crossed the line for his sixth win of the season. Bouhanni tried to follow in the pedal strokes of Demare, but found himself shut out by Kristoff, who closed the door on the right side of the road to prevent anyone else passing him. It worked, and Bouhanni had to settle for third place behind the Norwegian.

Bryan Coquard had been one of the pre-stage favourites, but he was left without any teammates after his Direct Energie team botched the leadout, leaving him to try and freelance it, with little success. The Frenchman crossed the line in 10th place.

How it happened

De Gendt started the day in the yellow jersey with a 48-second lead after his solo effort at the end of the opening stage. His lead did not look under any serious threat with an undulating, although not overtly arduous, stage from Saint-Chamond to Arlanc. A blow to De Gendt, however, would be the non-start of his teammate Tosh Van der Sande, who fell ill the day before.

With points up for grabs early in the mountains competition, a break was quick to form. Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mickaël Delage (FDJ), Nathan Brown (Cannondale-Drapac) and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) broke clear over the third category Côte de Croix Blanche. The peloton was happy to let them break free, but the leash was kept fairly tight, with the maximum advantage hardly north of 3:30 at any given time.

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The quartet was reduced to a trio when Delage sat up and drifted back into the clutches of the peloton just 30 kilometres into the day. The remaining escapees plugged along, but success never seemed a realistic option with the peloton continuing to keep close tabs on them, unsurprising considering Brown only began the day 59 seconds behind De Gendt.

With still over 71 kilometres remaining, the peloton – hell-bent on a sprint finish – had the three leaders in their sights. Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko smelt an opportunity and jumped free of the peloton in an attempt to bridge the 45-second gap. He made it look easy and was taking turns on the front with them a few short kilometres later.

As the peloton brought the lead down to under a minute yet again, Lutsenko decided to take matters into his own hands yet again. With just over 30 kilometres remaining, he left his companions behind and went in search of the finish line alone.

Behind him, the sprint teams of Dimension Data and Direct Energie took over the pace setting, which had been in the hands of Lotto-Soudal for most of the race. Lutsenko made use of all the road as he pushed down the descent towards the finish line, but the pack had him at 11 seconds as they passed through the 10km to go mark.

Perhaps channelling the memory of his teammate Fabio Aru’s victory last year, Lutsenko refused to give up on the attack and with five to go he was still holding his position out front. There was only so much he could do and the catch was finally made with three kilometres to go.

The peloton made use of the wide roads on the run into Arlanc, spreading into team order, but that space would be cut down as they made their way through the final few hundred metres of the course. Katusha-Alpecin muscled their way up to the front, delivering Kristoff to a clear run to the line. However, he was quickly passed by a fast approaching Demare, who stormed to the stage win. 

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