Gallopin escapes for stage victory

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Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) has won stage 2 of the Tour du Limousin, a hilly 184km parcours from St Hilaire Peyroux to Allassac contested in searing heat. The 23-year-old Frenchman attacked inside the final kilometre and held off the peloton for his second victory of the season. Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) topped Jure Kocjan (Team Type 1-Sanofi) in the field sprint for second, six seconds later.

Stage 1 winner and overnight race leader Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM) finished 12th on the stage and remains atop the general classification. He leads Florian Guillou (Bregagne-Schuller) by nine seconds and Tony Gallopin by 14 seconds overall.

After a flurry of attacks in the early kilometres were brought back by the peloton a four-man escape with the right combination of riders went up the road after 36 kilometres of racing. The escape was initiated by Maxime Méderel (Big Mat-Auber 93) and Anthony Geslin (FDJ) and the pair were joined by Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar) and Antoine Lavieu (Cofidis).

Soon after their escape the peloton stopped for a nature break which pushed the escapees' lead out in excess of two minutes. Anthony Ravard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) attacked the peloton and tried to bridge across when the break's lead topped one minute, but the Frenchman was unable to make the junction and was brought back into the field.

The break's lead reached a maximum of 3:40 after approximately 54 kilometres of racing, but the Vacansoleil-DCM led peloton brought the gap back to a more manageable two-minute margin.

Ever so steadily the break's lead decreased until their advantage dropped to under one minute at 54 kilometres to go. That was the cue for Méderel to take matters into his own hands as the Frenchman attacked the break and set out alone. His three former breakaway companions were soon swept up, but Méderel pressed onwards with his attack and found himself more than two minutes ahead of the field.

Cofidis put some riders on the front of the peloton to assist Vacansoleil-DCM's chase effort and with 15 kilometres to the finish Méderel's lead was reduced to 30 seconds.

Méderel continued with his solo effort, but was no match for a motivated peloton and finally succumbed to their chase effort 10 kilometres from the finish.

An attack went clear with six kilometres to go, comprised of Gallopin, Thomas Degand (Veranda's Willems-Accent), Jeremie Galland (Saur-Sojasun), Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet), Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Schuller) and race leader Björn Leukemans, but they were brought back two kilometres from the finish.

While the sprinters remaining in the reduced peloton were setting up for the finale Gallopin went on the attack again and held on for a solo win.