Poulhiès repeats in Ales

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Stéphane Poulhiès (Saur-Sojasun) repeated his feat of a year ago by winning the penultimate stage of the Étoile de Bessèges into Ales. The Frenchman proved too fast for Justin Jules (Véranda Rideau U) and Bobbie Traksel (Landbouwkrediet) in the bunch finish, while Pierre Rolland (Europcar) safely maintained his overall lead ahead of Sunday afternoon’s concluding time trial.

The freezing weather that has struck much of continental Europe in recent days once more played havoc with the race, and organisers were again forced to make alterations to the route. Glaze ice on its upper slopes saw the proposed summit finish at the Col de la Baraque removed from the route, and instead the peloton tackled the lower part of the climb before returning to finish in Ales.

The main break of the morning came 20km into the stage, as Renaud Dion (Bretagne Schuller), Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet) and Jonathan Hivert (Saur Sojasun) sallied clear of the peloton, although their advantage never stretched beyond the minute mark.

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Hivert forced the pace on the way up the truncated climb of the Col de la Baraque, first dropping Dion and then forcing his way clear of Amorison at the beginning of the descent. With 10km to race, Hivert still had 44 seconds in hand on the peloton, but he was eventually swallowed up on the approach to Ales.

In the finishing sprint, it was Poulhiès who emerged from the carnage, seeing off the challenge of Jules and Traksel, while his teammate Jimmy Engoulvent came home in third. Overall, Pierre Rolland has 6 seconds in hand over Franck Vermeulen (Veranda Rideau U) ahead of the afternoon’s short time trial.

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