Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) took his second successive stage victory in the Etoile de Bessèges between Nîmes and Saint-Ambroix, according to l’Equipe. The Slovenian once again took the bunch sprint ahead of the same two riders as yesterday, but with Arnaud Molmy (Roubaix-Lille Metropole) second and Nico Eeckhout (An Post-Sean Kelly) third this time.
The stage was dominated by a 60km breakaway from French pair Benoît Vaugrenard (la Française des Jeux) and Laurent Lefèvre (Bbox-Bouyges Telecom), who escaped on a small climb after around 40km. The duo was unable to build a lead bigger than 2’10” and was caught with 40km to go.
Bozic’s Italian teammates Marco Marcato and Alberto Ongarato prepared the ground for the Slovenian and he had time to raise his arms as he crossed the line a bike length clear of the rest.
His second stage win, plus time bonuses accumulated at intermediate sprints, increased Bozic’s lead in the overall standings to 10 seconds over Molmy and Eeckhout. With Bozic’s two wins and teammate Johnny Hoogerland’s second place in the French season opener, the GP Cycliste la Marseillaise, Vacansoleil is building a strong case for wildcard invites to the sport’s biggest events.
Tomorrow’s third stage will be 148km between Pont-Saint-Esprit and Bagnols-sur-Cèze.