Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) won his second stage of the Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine on the stiff uphill finish into Poitiers .
The French road national champion distanced Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Giovanni Lonardi (Polti VisitMalta) in the final 50 metres of the bunch sprint for his fourth victory of the season.
Stage 3 winner Samuel Leroux (TotalEnergies) held on for the GC victory, having gone into Friday’s final day of racing with a 20-second edge over Godon. The 30-year-old TotalEnergies rider survived in the bunch finish to carry a five-second margin over the stage winner. Nicolas Milesi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) held on to third overall, 22 seconds back.
La Rochefoucauld-en-Angoumois launched proceedings of the 185.9km final stage with a pair of KOM opportunities across the opening 45km – Côte de la Mitonnie (300 metres at 7%) and Côte de Loubressac (400 metres at 4%), just 9km separating the two KOM points. From there, the route flattened out in the middle with sprint bonifications at Le Vigeant (Kilometre 76) and Fleuré (kilometre 109.5) before taking on three full finish circuits of 13.5km each in Poitiers.
Light rain fell in the early kilometres as a quintet of riders moved away – Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Federico Biagini (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Cameron Rogers (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), Mathis Avondts (Parkhotel), and Daniel Årnes (Van Rysel Roubaix). They gained 2:26 on the peloton with 125km to go, and continued to work together over the next 75km with the gap sustained at 1:30 for most of the middle section of the race.
Thomas led the group on the stiff uphill under the finish banner to begin the finish circuit,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…