Bouhanni sprints to victory at Etoile de Bessèges

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Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) opened his account for 2014 with a sprint victory in stage 2 at Etoile de Bessèges. John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) and Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R La Mondiale) rounded out the top three in the bunch sprint finale at Saint-Ambroix.

Race leader Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), winner of the opening stage from a breakaway, remains on top of the general classification with a five-second advantage over both Laurens De Vreese (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Benoît Jarrier (Bretagne Séché Environnement).

The racing was animated from the start in the 149km stage from Nîmes to Saint-Ambroix and it wasn't until 30km had been covered that the break of the day eventually formed. Five riders went out on the attack - Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), Clément Koretzky (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Dimitri Le Boulch (BigMat-Auber 93) and Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille 13) - and after the dust settled on the opening hour of racing the escapees had pushed out a lead approaching four minutes.

Sander Helven's Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise squad set tempo in the peloton and kept the break's lead pegged at approximately three minutes. By the time the five leaders reached the 7.3km finishing circuit, to be completed five times, their lead had dropped to under two minutes and the writing was on the wall as the sprinters' teams of Europcar, FDJ.fr and Giant-Shimano all contributed riders to the chase.

Cohesion in the break came to a halt as riders began to launch attacks with Rostollan eventually going solo. His four breakaway companions were swept up midway through the penultimate lap and the La Pomme Marseille 13 rider, too, would be caught prior to the start of the final 7.3km circuit.

Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani-CSF) launched a counter-attack after the break was neutralised, but the sprinters' teams would not be caught off guard and shut down his move. The pace remained high throughout the final circuit ensuring a field sprint finale for stage 2.