4 Jours de Dunkerque: Milan Fretin wins stage 1

Milan Fretin (Cofidis) swept past Paul Hennequin (Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur) in the final 25 metres and won the opening stage of 4 Jours de Dunkerque. Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) settled for third place in the bunch sprint in the seaside town of Le Touquet.

Hennequin accelerated from the strung-out peloton with one kilometre to go and looked to have a winning move through the sweeping left-hand corner and 400 metres to the finish. But on the long, flat drag to the line, the 23-year-old Cofidis rider burst from the bunch and blew past Hennequin for his first victory of the year.

"I’m really happy! It’s my first victory of the year but also the first with my new team," Fretin said. "It was a particularly difficult finale, especially with the rain. We tried to battle at the front of the peloton and the team did a great job positioning me. I want to thank them, they did a great job, they believed in me and that allowed me to win. 

"There was stress because I knew they were going to work for me. It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for for a long time of course but I’m really happy it happened today!"

Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Amaury Capiot finished fourth and Milan Menten of Lotto Dstny fifth, a disappointing end to long rainy day where the squads had worked with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to shut down a long breakaway.

Departing from a rainy Dunkerque, the peloton travelled south for 173km to Le Touquet, with the middle section of the route passing through the inland rolling hills across the Caps et Marais d’’Opale regional park. All four categorised climbs were centralised in this area, from the early Le Ventus d’Alembon (1.4km at 5.2%) after 51km, to a trio of climbs within 10km of each other, beginning at 100.5km to go, all three 2km or shorter and the average gradients no more than 3% average.

With five of the six stages catering to sprinters, the bonus points on offer at the finish and at three intermediate sprints were the focus - Licques after 45.2km or racing, Zotaux at the 92.3kilometre mark and Frencq at kilometre 126.7. The finish provided 15 points to the winner.

Just before the first intermediate sprint in Licques, Maxime Jarnet (Van Rysel-Roubaix) and Antoine Hue (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) jumped to the front of the race. Across the first KOM, they were joined by Dean Harvey (Trinity Racing), Gwen Leclainche (Philippe Wagner-Bazin) and Joris Delbove (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93).

The quintet powered along to the mid-point of the race with a 2:35 advantage headed to the series of three small classified climbs. Leclainche set the pace out front as the rain continued, the gap to the peloton beginning to wash away, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Soudal-QuickStep at the front.

On one of the short descents, Hue carried too much speed on a sweeping left-hand turn and skidded onto off the pavement. He was quickly back up and rejoined the breakaway with the categorised climbs left behind and the final intermediate sprint to Frencq still 19km ahead.

The breakaway was in sight of an Arkéa-B&B Hotels-led peloton on the approach to Frencq and still 10km to the flat finish circuits, the five riders dangling at the front by just 15 seconds. Jarnet took the 3 bonus seconds in Frencq for a total of 7 on the day.

On the first pass of the finish line, with 32km to go across three more circuits, Delbove and Hue were no longer in the breakaway and left the trio of Jarnet, Harvey and Leclainche to hold off the sprint teams for a bit longer, now 20 seconds away. Harvey lasted just two more kilometres and dropped back to the peloton.

With 16km to go, the breakaway was absorbed back into the peloton for the last lap and a half. As the bell rang for the final 10.4km, Israel-Premier Tech and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale charging to the front along the beachfront of the Atlantic coast, Lotto Dstny also making a move to set up the lively sprint finish, taken by the Cofidis team which only showed its colours when it counted most.

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