At the end of a second day in the early breakaway, Victor Papon (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) staged a massive coup, winning stage 2 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque ahead of his fellow escapees Maël Guégan (CIC Pro Cycling Academy), Kévin Avoine and his Van Rysel Roubaix teammate Daniel Årnes.
The chasing peloton failed to reel in the escapees, finishing seven seconds later, led to the line by stage 1 winner Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Pithie continues as the race leader as none of the breakaway riders finished in the lead group on stage 1. Lewis Askey (NSN) is second at six seconds, while Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) lies in third at 10 seconds.
"It's unbelievable. I never expected it with all the sprinters' teams," Papon said. "When you go in the breakaway you always have a little glimmer of hope, and everything just lined up perfectly. I'm proud of the whole team."
Race leader Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), in the pink jersey, crosses the finish line just behind the breakaway and retains the lead (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
It was a familiar start to stage 2 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, with the exact same team composition in the early breakaway as the opening stage.
This time it was Maël Guégan (CIC Pro Cycling Academy), mountains classification leader Victor Papon and teammate Jaakko Hänninen (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur), another returnee Kévin Avoine and his teammate Daniel Årnes (Van Rysel Roubaix) in the breakaway.
After going clear 20 kilometres into the stage, the five riders worked together to gain nearly four minutes. That margin fell steadily in the final hour of racing, dropping to one minute with 12 km to go as Tudor and EF-Education-EasyPost led the chase.
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The quintet kept cooperating to try to hold off the chase and although they began to look ragged as the peloton slowly closed in, the breakaway still had half a minute with 5km to go.
As the convoy were pulled out of the gap between the peloton and breakaway, the five leaders continued to believe in their cause. They lost Hänninen with 3km to go, but the remaining four continued to push.
A crash in the chasing bunch briefly disrupted the peloton, and with 2km to go, they still had 20 seconds to close down as the quartet found another gear.
Avoine led out the sprint, but it was Papon who claimed the win as the peloton timed their pursuit poorly.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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