Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) claimed the first major victory of his career, taking a fantastic stage win in the 4 Jours de Dunkerque on an uphill sprint into Laon.
The Frenchman surged out of the chasing group on the climb, blasting past the remnants of the day's breakaway and diving through the twisting finale to take the victory over Ethan Vernon (Soudal-Quickstep) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën).
Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) lost the race lead to Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) thanks to the time bonuses Leroux gained in the day's breakaway.
Stage 2 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque got underway in Compiègne in pleasant conditions with race leader Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) facing a less than ideal stage to keep the top spot with an uphill finish in Laon.
Tuur Dens (Flanders-Baloise), Cériel Desal (Bingoal WB), Pier-André Coté (Human Powered Health), Logan Currie (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Damien Girard (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) made up the early breakaway but their hopes of contesting the stage win dimmed as their gap fell under 30 seconds with 45km remaining, when Dens let go of the breakaway.
The peloton, seemingly confident the six riders posed no threat and with the breakaway in sight on a long, straight road, let the gap go back out over a minute with 30km to race.
The hilly finale ended Girard's time out front with 21km to go while the leaders still held 52 seconds on the peloton. Their hopes rose as the gap stretched out over a minute with only 12km remaining.
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However, the punchy finish soon spelled the end of their ambitions as the TotalEnergies-led chasing group reduced their advantage to 12 seconds with 6km to go.
A tough climb shattered the peloton and brought the leaders into sight and spat Leroux out the back. He was picked up by an attack from the peloton as Coté, Desal and Currie continued to forge on. Victor Lafay (Cofidis) jumped away from the chasing peloton and joined the trio but the AG2R Citroën-led bunch were hot on their heels.
They were caught at the base of the final climb and the Groupama blasted past the four leaders to snatch the stage win.
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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