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Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) claimed the primary main victory of his profession, taking a incredible stage win within the 4 Jours de Dunkerque on an uphill dash into Laon.
The Frenchman surged out of the chasing group on the climb, blasting previous the remnants of the day’s breakaway and diving via the twisting finale to take the victory over Ethan Vernon (Soudal-Quickstep) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën).
Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) misplaced the race result in Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) due to the time bonuses Leroux gained within the day’s breakaway.
Stage 2 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque obtained underway in Compiègne in nice situations with race chief Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) dealing with a lower than preferrred stage to maintain the highest spot with an uphill end in Laon.
Tuur Dens (Flanders-Baloise), Cériel Desal (Bingoal WB), Pier-André Coté (Human Powered Well being), Logan Currie (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Damien Girard (Good Métropole Côte d’Azur) made up the early breakaway however their hopes of contesting the stage win dimmed as their hole fell beneath 30 seconds with 45km remaining, when Dens let go of the breakaway.
The peloton, seemingly assured the six riders posed no menace and with the breakaway in sight on a protracted, straight highway, let the hole return out over a minute with 30km to race.
The hilly finale ended Girard’s day out entrance with 21km to go whereas the leaders nonetheless held 52 seconds on the peloton. Their hopes rose because the hole stretched out over a minute with solely 12km remaining.
Nonetheless, the punchy end quickly spelled the top of their ambitions because the TotalEnergies-led chasing group lowered their benefit to 12 seconds with 6km to go.
A tricky climb shattered the peloton and introduced the leaders into sight and spat Leroux out the again. He was picked up by an assault from the peloton as Coté, Desal and Currie continued to forge on. Victor Lafay (Cofidis) jumped away from the chasing peloton and joined the trio however the AG2R Citroën-led bunch had been scorching on their heels.
They had been caught on the base of the ultimate climb and the Groupama blasted previous the 4 leaders to grab the stage win.
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