Coquard makes it two in a row in Dunkirk
Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) continued his good spring season by making it two in a row with another sprint win on stage 2 of the Four Days of Dunkirk. The French rider got the perfect lead-out from Adrien Petit and out-sprinted a Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) who was clearly the fastest, but who had a bad positioning going in the sprint.
There was another flat stage on the menu on the second day when the riders covered 186.3km around the city of Aniche. It was the cobbled stage of the 2016 edition but this year the three pave sectors came in the first 60km and so were unlikely to make a difference. Then there were two small climbs in the first half before the terrain leveled out. In the end, the riders did three laps of a mostly flat finishing circuit that had an uphill finishing straight.
Coquard benefited greatly from a formidable lead-out from teammate Adrien Petit who allowed his captain to start his sprint from the perfect position and took his 6th victory in 2016.
With the win, Coquard strengthened his overall lead and now has an advantage of 10 seconds over Bouhanni. He should get another chance to sprint for the win in stage 3 which is another relatively flat affair. There are four early climbs on the menu in the first half but the second part is mostly flat. In the end, the riders will do two laps of a 10.5km circuit that is a bit hillier than we have seen in recent days and where a harder uphill sprint will make things tougher.
4 Jours de Dunkerque 2016 – stage 2 results (Aniche – Aniche):
| 1 | Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) |
4:34:18 |
| 2 | Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) |
,, |
| 3 | Roy Jans (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
,, |
| 4 | Rudy Barbier (Roubaix Lille Metropole) |
,, |
| 5 | Maximiliano Richeze (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
| 6 | Kenny Dehaes (Wanty-Group Gobert) |
,, |
| 7 | Raymond Kreder (Roompot – Oranje Peloton) |
,, |
| 8 | Boris Vallee (Fortuneo – Vital Concept) |
,, |
| 9 | Leonardo Duque (Delko Marseille) |
,, |
| 10 | Benjamin Giraud (Delko Marseille) |
,, |
