Tour de la Provence: Davide Ballerini wins crash-marred stage 2 in Manosque

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Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won his second consecutive stage at the Tour de la Provence, beating fellow Italian Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) on the rising finish in Manosque.

Ballerini seemed to be riding for Julian Alaphilippe but when the world champion crashed in the rain with Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) with 1.2km to go, he took over and powered his way to victory. Alex Aranburu (Astana) was third and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) was fifth. 

Thanks to the ten-second stage winner’s time bonus, Ballerini extended his overall race lead to 16 seconds on Aranburu. Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) is third at 19 seconds.

Alaphilippe was not hurt in the crash and got up to finish the stage. He was given the same time as the Saturday’s queen stage of the Tour de la Provence  climbs the lower slopes of Mont Ventoux, with the stage ending at the chalet Reynard after 9.7km of climbing at nine per cent.

“What a stage and what a team. They worked all day and I think it’s the best thing to win in the final when you see a team like this,” Ballerini said in praise of his teammates.  

“I’m really, really happy for the team and the sponsor. I saw the crash from Loulou [Alaphilippe]. I think he’s good, I hope he’s good. It was not easy, it was very, very stressful in the final because it was raining, and also it was slippery on the downhill, but we stayed in front and did the best.”

How it unfolded

The 174.6km stage started on the Mediterranean coast in Cassis but then headed inland deep into Provence. 

The stage started with an unclassified 3.2km climb and so most riders warmed up on the rollers before the start. The climb inspired an immediate attack and Filippo Conca (Lotto Soudal), Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Énergie), Eduard-Michael Grosu (Delko), Baptiste Bleier (St Michel-Auber 93), and Samuel Leroux (Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Métropole), who quickly got away. 

The peloton was happy to let them go, with Ballerini’s Deceuninck-QuickStep team seemingly happy to lead the gradual and controlled chase.  

The five riders opened a three-minute lead as they rolled over the Provence hills, with Rémi Cavagna and Yves Lampaert doing the hard work and heavy lifting to defend Ballerini’s Modrian-inspired leader’s jersey. They lined out the peloton as everyone tried to stay warm and dry in the 5 degrees Celsius temperatures and occasional showers. 

As the kilometres clicked down, the five pushed on, but they were never allowed to extend their lead past three minutes and it began to fall into the final 50km of the stage.  

The second intermediate sprint came in Manosque, close to the location of today's finish. Conca decided to go solo and savour his debut with Lotto Soudal, casting his fellow breakaway riders to the wind as the climb began to hurt.

The tight corner in the final kilometre saw Kasper Asgreen slip out, sparking fear in the peloton and an ease in the chase. 

Conca quickly pushed his lead out to over a minute and looked strong on the Col de la Mort d’Imbert climb. However Deceuninck-QuickStep regrouped and even Asgreen helped with the chase despite a bloody knee. 

Arkéa-Samsic and Movistar also gathered at the front of the peloton helping with the chase as the rain came down and made for some nervous racing.  

Conca was swept up with 16 kilometres to go, after the late Col de Montfuron climb.

Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) made a late attack on the road back to Manosque but Deceuninck-QuickStep kept up the chase, eventually sweeping them up with four kilometres to go. 

Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) was one of several sprinters distanced as Astana took over the pace to protect Vlasov. However a touch of wheels saw him go down and Alaphilippe could not avoid him and also went down. 

Astana decided to push with Omar Fraile (Astana-Premier Tech) doing a huge turn but after the tight right turn with 800 metres to go, Ballerini emerged to use his strength and speed to win again.