Prades wins Tour de la Provence stage 2

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Movistar's new signing Eduard Prades claimed the first ever Spanish stage victory at the Tour de La Provence while his compatriot and national champion Gorka Izagirre of Astana moved into the lead thanks to the four seconds bonus awarded to the third placed rider, which gave him two seconds of an advantage over home favorite Thibaut Pinot.

"I'm very happy," Prades declared. "It's something I dreamt about when I changed team. It's impressive to achieve it only in my second race of the season [after the Santos Tour Down Under]. It's a way to repay the team for the confidence they had in me. There were several riders of a high level in the front group but I knew that I could race for the win if I recovered well in the downhill, I could go for the stage win."

Anthony Delaplace of Arkea-Samsic was last to surrender from the breakaway group that comprised Rudy Barbier (Israel Cycling Academy) and his younger brother Pierre (Natura4ever-Roubaix-Lille Métropole), Romain Feillu (St-Michel-Auber 93), Jodok Salzmann (Maloja Pushbikers), Dries De Bondt (Corendon-Circus), Maxime Cam (Vital Concept-B&B Hôtels) and Mattia Viel (Androni Giocattoli).

French riders upped the tempo on the steep Route des Crêtes overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with Direct Energie's Lilian Calmejane taking the King of the Mountains jersey and Groupama-FDJ positioning their three climbers (Pinot, Rudy Molard and best young rider David Gaudu) in the 9-man group that contested the stage victory in La Ciotat. Tony Gallopin of AG2R-La Mondiale launched the sprint but Prades top end speed enabled him to claim his first victory for a World Tour team at the age of 31.

"I believed I was gonna win so I was obviously a bit disappointed to miss out but I'm still satisfied with my first race day of the year, time trial excepted," Gallopin said. "My experience helped me stay in contention on the Route des Crêtes where I was at my limit. I'm well placed on GC now but I'm not overexcited about it."

Inaugural time trial winner Filippo Ganna crossed the finishing line with a deficit of 1:27. "For me also it was the first racing day for this year," Izagirre echoed. "It's been a very explosive finale. Towards the end, I almost crashed but I eventually came third and the time bonus puts me in the lead. I'm very happy with that. Now that I'm in the [multicolour] jersey, we'll try to hold onto it but Groupama-FDJ has a very good team so we'll have two very hard days ahead of us."

Another hilly stage is featured on stage 3 from Aubagne to the car racing circuit of Le Castellet where Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1 French Grand Prix last year for the return of the event to the venue that hosted the competition from 1970 to 1990.

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