Jans wins second stage of Etoile de Bessèges

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Wanty-Groupe Gobert's Roy Jans scored a victory in the second stage of Etoile de Bessèges today, topping Alexandre Blain (Marseille 13-KTM) and Bob Jungels (Trek) in a crash-marred sprint in Les Fumades. The incident involved race leader Kris Boeckmans (Lotto Soudal), who nonetheless continues tomorrow in the leader's jersey.

“This was my first sprint of the season and it’s resulted in a victory straight away,” Jans said after the stage. “This holds a lot of promise and hopefully it’s the first of many in 2015. The team has done great work and I am very happy with this victory.

“We were very well positioned in the final 1.5 to 2km,” Jans continued. “Then a Cofidis rider went down in third position and I heard many more riders crash. We were able to avoid this. I yelled at [leadout man Marco Marcato] to start the sprint after the last corner and he did that perfectly. I only needed to follow his wheel and could save energy. After the turn I only needed to jump from his wheel.”

The stage was impacted by a brutally cold wind that plagued riders throughout the 155km stage. The day's breakaway consisted of Thomas Vaubourzeix (Veranclassic-Ekoï), Evaldas Siskevicius (Team Marseille 13-KTM) and Tim Kerkhof (Roompot), who gained 3:30 before being blown backward by the wind.

Conditions were so brutal that the peloton stopped, not wanting to continue onto the large lap before the finishing circuits because of the cold, making for a slower than normal average speed of just 28km/h for the first 100km of racing. The race organisers informed the riders that they could continue directly to the final circuit but be ejected from the race. After the disagreement, the peloton continued, where they found themselves in pursuit of Kerkhof, who had chosen to keep warm by racing solo and was now five minutes ahead.

“There was a cold and stormlike headwind which resulted in dangerous racing conditions,” said Wanty-Groupe Gobert director Steven De Neef. “After a short break on the first finish line passage, and after that two times more, the peloton decided to race again.”

The wind finally subsided enough for the race to go on, and Kerkhof held only a minute's advantage on the final major climb of the day with 44km to go. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attacked on the climb with Hugo Houle (AG2R La Mondiale), and the pair joined the Dutchman on the descent to make it three up the road with only 20 seconds.

Kerkhof's solo efforts cost him, an Houle and Voeckler quickly left him behind as the road flattened, but they were unable to resist the chase of FDJ and Lotto Soudal, and with 10km to go it was all back together.

FDJ took control of leading out the sprint, but a crash in the final metres scuttled their efforts and that of Lotto, and Jans was the fastest man standing.

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