Juan Antonio Flecha retained fourth place overall after an action-packed second stage at Circuit Franco-Belge.
Late Stannard attack closed down
Juan Antonio Flecha retained fourth place overall after an action-packed second stage at Circuit Franco-Belge.
The Spaniard led the team home following a bunch sprint and retains the GC place he fought hard for in the opening day’s breakaway, 16 seconds back on leader Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol).
Ian Stannard enlivened the first with a gutsy attack off the front heading into the final 10 kilometres. Despite opening up some daylight the British National Champion was forced to concede defeat as the sprint trains homed in on the finish.
In Poperinge it was Marcel Kittel who powered to another sprint victory, the German (Argos-Shimano) fending off rivals Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) and Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) on the line in Belgium.
For the second day running the race produced an aggressive and crash-strewn stage which saw the peloton stretched to near-breaking point at times.
The bunch finish allowed Roelandts to retain the overall lead the Belgian picked up after leading home the break alongside Flecha on stage one.
The day did not turn out so well for Ben Swift who was forced to abandon following a crash.
Hard test
Speaking after the stage team Doctor Philip Riley said: “It was quite a nasty crash and a number of riders went down. We had three riders involved in it but Ian Stannard and Chris Sutton were able to remount.
“Swifty was in some severe pain in his back so was taken to hospital for some investigations and is unfortunately out of the race.”
The penultimate pro stage race of the season continued with a 178.5-kilometre stage from Antoing to Poperinge – four riders heading clear on the road early on.
With the gap stretching out to five minutes the chase was briefly disrupted with a crash in the bunch with 70km remaining.
Alongside Swift Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Sharp) went down hard, breaking his collarbone and forced to abandon out of a potentially race-winning position after the opening test.
With the pace still high the break were reeled in with 50km still to race and it was no surprise to see further attacks in the closing stages, a further five riders going clear to chance their arm before Stannard hit out.
Meanwhile Roelandts, who began the day with a nine-second lead, was able to capture three further bonus seconds at the third and final intermediate sprint
Despite a strain on the bunch things came back together to set up the first bunch sprint of the race, Kittel showing their strength to raise his arms in victory.
With Flecha consolidating fourth Sports Director Steven de Jongh added: “Flecha finished safely in the bunch so he is still in fourth but it’s not how we wanted the day to pan out. It is a real shame to lose Swifty after his crash."
