Greipel victorious in 4 Jours de Dunkerque
May 09 2018 10:49 pm CET
Image: Lotto Soudal logo
Andre Greipel has won the second stage in the 4 Jours de Dunkerque. The Lotto-Soudal rider beat Timothy Dupont and Bryan Coquard in a chaotic sprint. Coquard took over the leader's jersey from Marc Sarreau.
The first days in the 4 Jours de Dunkerque are usually for the sprinters. This year it is no different, and today a mostly flat stage awaited the peloton. The 173.3 km long stage between Le Quesnoy and Soissons offered the riders predominantly flat roads in the beginning of the stage, with very little obstacles. At the end of the stage there were four small climbs, with the last one at 10 km from the finish.
The breakaway of the day was formed by Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Samsic) and Connor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport). They got a maximum advantage of 3 minutes over the peloton led by the sprinter’s teams. Greipel, Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) and yesterday’s winner Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) directed their teams to control the peloton. They were almost caught with 55 km to go, but the chase decided this was too early and the gap extended to over 2 minutes again.
In the run in to the final climb of Pasly, 1.3 km at a 5% average, the gap went down to about 10 seconds and the peloton quickly closed it down, led by Vital Concept. On the climb AG2R upped the pace for their leader Samuel Dumoulin. The team of the small French sprinter did its best to neutralise all attempts on the short climb. However, Mauro Finetto (Delko Marseille) managed to start the descent with a small advantage. Behind, Cofidis also started working for Nacer Bouhanni, and together with Lotto-Soudal they managed to close the gap.
An disorganised peloton rushed to the line as one team after the other took the lead. With a little over 3 km to go, Cofidis and Wanty Groupe Gobert, managed to get their train on the rails. Wanty took the lead and tried to set up a lead out for Timothy Dupont. A roundabout at 1.7 km from the line caused chaos again and Vital Concept took over.
Wanty changed tactics as Tim Devriendt tried to break away. He was also chased down and a sprint followed. Bouhanni started, Coquard took over and seemed to make it, when Andre Greipel managed to squeeze his big body between Coquard and the fence. The Gorilla won his first stage since the Tour Down Under, beating Dupont and Coquard.
By Siebe Kok
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSANDRé GREIPEL
LOTTO SOUDAL
4 JOURS DE DUNKERQUE / GRAND PRIX DES HAUTS DE FRANCE
