One day after Bauke Mollema’s (Trek-Segafredo) victory at Gourdon, the second stage of the Tour des Alpes Maritimes saw the success of Michael Woods, winner at the top of the Fayence wall.
After making his lethal attack and showing himself intractable in the last 300 meters, the Canadian of the Israel Start-Up Nation formation edged the Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) by two seconds, which also allows him to seize the leader’s jersey to the detriment of his runner-up for the day.
“It was excellent, the team rode so well for me and I’m just glad I could return the favor,” Woods said shortly after the finish. “Sylvan [Adams] and Paulo [Saldanha] bought me onto the team to get wins like this and it started off right so I’m really happy,”
After a fast and furious opening hour of racing through the foothills of the Alps, Biniam Ghirmay, Clement Berthet (both Delko), Victor de la Parte (Total Direct Energie), Hugo Houle (Astana-Premier Tech), Andrea Mifsud (Swiss Racing), Cyril Barthe (B&B) and Dylan Kowalski (Xeliss-Roubaix) formed the breakaway of the day.
The breakaway gained around 5 minutes before Trek-Segafreo and Ineos Grenadiers upped the pace to begin hoovering the escape group at around 20k.
Houle, Da la Parthe, and Barthe were last men standing before the Ineos-led bunch made the catch inside the final 4km as the race approached the Fayence finishing wall.
??@rusty_woods of ??@TeamIsraelSUN wins stage 2 of ??@tourhautvar #TDHV2021 #Tour0683 (?@F3cotedazur) pic.twitter.com/S1NzryHr8C
— World Cycling Stats (@wcsbike) February 20, 2021
