4 Jours de Dunkerque: Milan Fretin wins stage 1 in extremely tight sprint
Cycling
The opening stage of 4 Jours de Dunkerque was quite a difficult one to manage towards the end due to the rainy conditions, but a bunch sprint still decided the outcome of the day as Cofidis took the stage win with Milan Fretin.
The breakaway of the day was formed by Dean Harvey, Gwen Leclainche, Maxime Jarnet, Antoine Hue and Joris Delbove. Jarnet and Leclainche were the final survivors but the rainy conditions made it tough out there and the peloton caught them with 16 kilometers to go.
The peloton slowly increased it's speed towards the finish in Le Touquet, where the bunch sprint was slowly approaching with a lot of tension to avoid crashes.
The final kilometer saw a couple corners that, in the wet, favoured those who took the right risks. This was the case with Paul Hennequin of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur who gained a few meters in both corners. The Frenchman also took a career-changing win in incredible fashion, but Cofidis launched the sprint and Fretin was superior to all others in the finale; only overtaking his rival in the final meters of the stage. Sam Bennett rode to third.
Read also
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Five world tour debutants to watch next season
Popular news
Latest comments
- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024