Leukemans wins Tour du Limousin

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Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) closed out the Tour du Limousin with back-to-back stage wins with his sprint victory today in Limoges. Jure Kocjan (Team Type 1-Sanofi) finished second on the day while race leader Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM) rounded out the top three.

Leukemans, the winner of stage 1, led the Tour du Limousin from start to finish and secured overall victory today. The Belgian's general classification lead was never large, nine seconds was his biggest advantage to second place overall, and the ten-second time bonuses for each of Ladagnous's consecutive stage wins moved the Frenchman into second overall, just seven seconds down on Leukemans. Had Leukemans not picked up the four-second bonus for third place in the final stage the final margin would have been three seconds, but still enough for victory.

Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Schuller), the runner-up on stage 1, dropped from second to third overall and finished 13 seconds behind Leukemans overall.

Moments after the neutral section ended at the start of the 180km stage from Lacs de Haute Charente to Limoges, a seven-man break rolled up the road comprised of Mickaël Chérel (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Yohann Gène (Team Europcar), Ben King (Team Type 1-Sanofi), Anthony Roux (FDJ), Cyril Lemoine (Saur-Sojasun), Théo Vimpere (Big Mat-Auber 93) and Anthony Colin (Roubaix Lille Metropole).

Unfortunately for Gène, he would suffer two flats, one five kilometres into the stage and a second several kilometres later, which dropped the Frenchman from the break and back into the field.

Race leader Björn Leukemans and his Vacansoleil-DCM team would have to be vigilant as three, two, and one-second time bonuses were up for grabs at each of the three intermediate sprints while 10, 6 and 4-second bonuses were on tap at the finish line. The Belgian started the day with a nine-second lead over Guillou, while Ladagnous held third a further four seconds back. Fifteen more riders started the day between 14 and 30 seconds off of Leukemans' lead.

Three of the riders in the break were general classification threats, Chérel (29 seconds back), Roux (31 seconds back), and Vimpere (39 seconds back), and Roux took top honours at each intermediate sprint to chop nine seconds off his GC time.

When the escapees passed the third intermediate sprint line with 63.7km remaining their advantage over the peloton stood at 1:50, reduced from their maximum advantage of 4:25 earlier in the stage.

Whatever cooperation there was in the break soon came to a halt as riders started to attack and the break fractured. Ultimately, four riders would remain in front, Roux, Vimpere, King and Lemoine while Colin and Chérel were absorbed by the peloton.

Roux and Vimpere continued to work hard in the escape, which Lemoine found too difficult to handle with 38 kilometres remaining. King soon suffered an inopportune mechanical and he, too, was dropped shortly afterwards leaving just Roux and Vimpere in the lead.

The break's advantage had been steadily reduced, however, and with 30 kilometres to go the duo's lead was a tenuous 20 seconds.

Alexander Riabkin (Caja Rural) attacked from the peloton and bridged to Roux and Vimpere, providing a fresh set of legs to fend off the field's advance. Vimpere cracked with 23 kilometres remaining and two kilometres later Roux dropped Riabkin and set off alone.

Roux's solo stint off the front was short-lived and with 20 kilometres remaining the escapees had been absorbed.

Attacks continued to be launched on the finishing circuit, but the teams of the sprinters quickly neutralised the escapes, setting up a bunch sprint finale to conclude the Tour du Limousin.