Poulhies prevails on opening stage at Route du Sud

Stéphane Poulhies (Saur-Sojasun) has won stage 1 at the Route du Sud and earned the first leader's jersey of the four-day French stage race. The 26-year-old Frenchman sprinted to his second victory of the season in the bunch gallop finale with the top three rounded out by compatriot Arnaud Demare (FDJ-Big Mat) and Italy's Manuel Belletti (AG2R La Mondiale).

With time bonuses factored in Poulhies leads general classification by four seconds over Demare and six seconds on Belletti.

The stage was dominated by a three-man break initiated by Jerome Cousin (Team Europcar). Cousin rode alone in the race lead for 40 kilometres before he was joined by Staf Scheirlinckx (Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's) and Javier Chacon (Andalucia). The trio extended their lead to three minutes on the peloton, but were ultimately caught with 15 kilometres remaining.

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Their efforts off the front did not go unrewarded, however, as Scheirlinckx claimed the mountains classification jersey while Cousin tops the sprint classification.