Hutarovich tops Rojas for stage 2 victory

FDJ sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich took his second victory in a week's time with a commanding win on stage 2 of the Tour du Poitou Charentes et de la Vienne in Bressuire.

The winner of last weekend's Coppa Bernocchi pulled off a perfectly executed sprint to beat Jose Joaquim Rojas (Movistar) on the 175km stage in a crash-filled run to the line.

"The final was not easy. It was like a slide with a roller coaster. We were riding over 70kph," said Hutarovich. He has come back on form after a bout of appendicitis earlier in the season that prevented him from racing the Tour de France. "The form is coming back slowly and I hope to be on top for the World Championships."

Race leader David Appollonio was awarded the same time as Hutarovich after being held up in a crash with 1km to go, and now keeps his race lead by a slim three seconds over the Belarussian.

"It was a good day for the team. Everybody was strong and confident but it was just bad luck at the end," said Team Sky's directeur Nicolas Portal on teamsky.com. "The important thing is that everyone is okay."

Leopard Trek's trainee Rudger Selig launched the first attack from the drop of the flag, but he wasn't allowed much clearance by an aggressive peloton. Florent Mallégol (Brittany Schuller) and Romain Delalot (Cofidis) were the next to go, and this pair of French trainees were given the green light from the peloton, and although Katusha's Arkimedes Arguelyes Rodriges made a valiant attempt to bridge across, it was Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank Continental) who actually was able to make the juncture.

Delalot took the first sprint, and then the trio got to work pulling out a five minute maximum lead, at which point Team Sky began picking up the pace to protect David Appollonio's lead.

Mallégol led the trio across the line on the second intermediate sprint, Kelderman the third and the Dutch rider also snagged all four mountain sprints along the way, taking the lead in the polka dot jersey classification.

With 50km to go, the Europcar team began pulling, bringing the gap down below the one minute mark with 25km to go. FDJ took over the pace making as race leader Appollonio had a minor trip off the road and had to chase back onto the bunch.

The peloton split due to a crash while he was chasing back on, making a furious effort by his Sky team necessary to close the gap. He finally rejoined with 5km to go, but another crash with 1km to go prevented Appollonio from contesting the sprint, but he was awarded the same time as the stage winner.

The French FDJ team delivered Hutarovich to a clean victory ahead of Movistar's JJ Rojas and Stéphane Poulhiès (Saur-Sojasun).

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