Coquard denies Van der Poel on stage 2 of the Arctic Race

CTT

Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept – B&B Hotels) claimed the second stage of the Arctic Race of Norway, pipping stage 1 winner Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) to take the victory.

Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) went very early in the sprint and eventually finished in third place.

“For the finale, we had only Kevin Reza and Jeremy Lecroq, but Kevin is amazing for the lead-out. He put me on the wheel of Christophe Laporte, and I opened my sprint after the last corner,” said Coquard.

“Mathieu van der Poel is very, very strong but today, I was sure that if I was in a good position, then it was going to be possible to win and to beat Van der Poel.”

Van der Poel leads the general classification by nine seconds from Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), with Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty– Gobert) two seconds further back in third.

Arctic Race of Norway 2019 – stage 2 results (Henningsvær – Svolvær):

1	Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept-B&B Hotel)	3:45:14
2	Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus)	,,
3	Christophe Laporte (Cofidis)	,,
4	August Jensen (Israel Cycling Academy)	,,
5	Louis Bendixen (Team Coop)	,,
6	Herman Dahl (Joker Fuel of Norway)	,,
7	Emils Liepins (Wallonie Bruxelles)	,,
8	Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin)	,,
9	Christophe Noppe (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise)	,,
10	Jordi Warlop (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise)	,,

Arctic Race of Norway 2019 – general classification after stage 2:

1	Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus)	7:16:09
2	Alexey Lutsenko (Astana)	+09”
3	Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X)	,,
4	Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Gobert)	+11”
5	Christophe Laporte (Cofidis)	+12”
6	Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Jumbo-Visma)	+13”
7	Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy)	,,
8	Magnus Cort (Astana)	+14”
9	Jordi Warlop (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise)	+16”
10	Benjamin Declercq (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise)	,,