The second of this weekend’s sprint stages awaited the peloton on Sunday afternoon, however the road to Châteauroux was exposed and there was a threat of crosswinds for the final 60 kilometres of racing. It was a peculiar start to the day with Van der Poel and Rickaert attacking from the flag drop and the peloton allowing their advantage to grow to over five minutes.
The strong attacking duo made it tough for the bunch, especially with a cross-tailwind for a lot of the stage. There was a brief split in the bunch at around 65 kilometres to go, just as Oscar Onley was making his way back after a wheel change. However, Team Picnic PostNL stayed calm and through some good teamwork they returned to the first part of the peloton a few kilometres later once the road became more sheltered.
It was a nervous final 50 kilometres as teams stepped on the gas, then slowed again in the more covered sections; either in a battle to try and split things or to also close down the leading duo. All of Team Picnic PostNL made it into the front split when the main crosswind section took place, before things split a bit further once more.
However, despite some attempts from other teams, the race didn’t splinter into pieces so coming into Châteauroux the race headed for a bunch sprint; after a late catch of Van der Poel was made. Tobias Lund Andresen brought fast finisher Pavel Bittner, who had crashed earlier in the stage, forward expertly in the last two kilometres and dropped him off on the wheel of Milan going under the flamme rouge. Bittner then followed Milan all the way to the line, delivering a good kick to take a strong fourth place on the stage; and another strong result for Team Picnic PostNL at the Tour de France.
