Pinot wins from three-man break

Just 11 days after winning his first race as a professional, young talent Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) has struck again, winning stage 2 of the Tour de l'Ain from a three-man break and moving into the overall lead.

The day's final climb, the category 3 Côte de Cessiat situated 6.3km from the finish in Bellignat, proved pivotal in the race finale as Pinot, Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) attacked on the ascent and held off a 35-man chase group on the descent to the finish line.

The 21-year-old Pinot sprinted to victory, followed by Taaramae and Poels, while Sylvain Georges (Big Mat-Auber 93) took the sprint for fourth place 12 seconds behind the lead trio.

Overnight race leader Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank Continental Team) finished 13th on the day in the group led in by Georges but the time differential to Pinot coupled with the stage winner's time bonus dropped the Dutchman back to fourth overall. Pinot leads Taaramae by two seconds and Poels by five seconds, while Kelderman is now 11 seconds back on general classification.

For much of the stage two riders, Jonathan Thire (Big Mat-Auber 93) and Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM), were on the attack and built up a maximum advantage of five minutes. The pair rode together until the penultimate climb, the category 4 Côte de Matafelon-Granges, when Wauters dropped Thire on the ascent. The Belgian crested the summit first with 20.2km remaining, but was caught soon after by a peloton reduced to approximately 60 riders.

Heading into the final climb, David Moncoutie (Cofidis) launched an attack but was soon brought back. His Estonian teammate Taaramae, however, successfully separated himself from the peloton and was joined by Pinot and Poels in the race winning selection.

The climbing in today's stage is but a warm-up compared to what's on tap for the final two days of racing. On Friday the peloton will face four categorised climbs on its route from Nantua to Lélex - a pair of category 2 climbs followed by a pair of category 1 ascents. The final climb is situated 21.6km from the finish and after descending for approximately 12 kilometres, the road again turns uphill through to the finish line.

On Saturday the stage finishes atop the 17km-long, hors categorie ascent of the Le Grand Colombier, after the peloton has tackled the 4th category Cote de Premezel and 2nd category Cote de Thezillieu.