Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) took the second win of his career and second in a week, converting a late burst on the uphill finish of stage 2 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque into victory.
The Briton, who unclipped from his pedal by accident as he crossed the line, beat Sakarias Koller Løland (Uno-X Mobility) and Samuel Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) to the finish following the late 600-metre uphill on the 179km stage.
Stage 1 winner Axel Zingle (Visma-Lease A Bike) took fourth place and so retains the overall race lead on countback with the duo tied on time at the top of the standings.
The hectic finish came with a downhill run into the final kilometre, followed by the closing ascent into Crépy-en-Valois. Israel-Premier Tech had taken control of the peloton heading into the finish, but it was Askey who timed his late move to perfection.
He stole a march on his rivals during the run to the finish, fading a little at the death, but still managing to hold off those behind – including Alberto Dainese (Tudor) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) – despite his right foot slipping out of the pedal.
The closing sprint was set up after the day’s five-man break had been brought back just 6km from the finish. Kenny Molly (Van Rysel-Roubaix) was the big winner from the move, picking up 12 mountain points from the four climbs of the stage to move into the mountain classification leader’s jersey.
A counter-move from Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) and Gil Gelders (Soudal-QuickStep) came to nothing at 5km to go, before Israel took it up on the front to set up the final dash to the line.
Results
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