Dowsett takes solo victory on final stage

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The Tour du Poitou Charentes has been a race for the neo-pros, and that situation didn't change on the race's final stage, which was won by Team Sky's rising star Alex Dowsett.

In the finale of the 171.4km stage, Team Sky came to the fore to lead out the sprint into Poitiers, and their high speed and aggression caused a split in the peloton inside the final 10km.

With three kilometres to go Dowsett attacked from the head of the race, and was able to hold his six second advantage to the line ahead of the sprint won by teammate and former race leader Davide Appollonio.

RadioShack's neo-pro Jesse Sergent finished safely in the first peloton to seal his second stage race victory of his own nascent career after an earlier win in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen.

“What an incredible day,” said a happy Sergent on the podium. “When I flatted at 15km from the finish, everything looked over as the peloton was split in different parts at that moment and the team car was too far behind. Many thanks to Yaroslav Popovych who gave me his wheel. With the support of Robbie Hunter and Sam Bewley who rode themselves ‘empty’ we managed to come back. In the mean time four guys from Sky, with Dowsett, had attacked in the open fields and crosswinds. Kwiatkowski brought me to that final climb and then I had to sprint as fast as possible to the line. Fortunately Dowsett could only take 6 seconds.”

“I am especially glad that it all worked out as the team worked so hard,” said Sergent. “This was one of the fastest stages of this Tour and racing in France is always pretty tough. Attacks, attacks, attacks.”

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