Mads Petersen (Lidl-Trek) scored a second victory in two days at Tour de la Provence and retained the race lead. He stormed through the puddles of a wet finish in Martigues to win the bunch sprint ahead of Axel Zingle (Cofidis).
Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ) finished third.
The Lidl-Trek squad remained patient across on the rain-soaked stage 1, which saw a breakaway of six riders stay away for 142km of the 157.2km route.
Because of the inclement weather conditions across the region, the GC times were taken five kilometres before the finish line in Martigues and there were no time bonuses awarded.
With the catch of the remnants of the original breakaway with 5km to go, there were no changes in the general classification, Pederson holding a six-second margin over his teammate Jakob Söderqvist and another five seconds ahead of Watson.
“Of course we wanted to keep the jersey for the GC, so the strategy was for the team to pull straight away and let the small breakaway go. Then do a good sprint in the end and I think we managed to well and had a really good final,” the former World Champion and stage winner said.
When did he know would take back-to-back wins? “It is only when you pass the finish line. You’re dreaming about winning every time you are on the start line. Today was a really hectic final, so in the last metres I knew it. The rain, I think it played in our favour.”
How it unfolded
The spring-like sunshine for the prologue was replaced on Friday with steady rain and winter cold. A French battalion of five riders Alexis Gougeard (Cofidis), Alexis Guerin (Philippe Wagner-Bazin), Thomas Bonnet (TotalEnergies), Kévin Avoine (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Jonathan Couanon (Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur) plus Canadian Robin Plamondon (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) advanced into the banks of low clouds and wet roads on the opening unclassified climb to form a solid group of six for the bulk of the day.
The dreary weather conditions allowed the break to stay away across both the Col de Bonnieux and Col de Vernègues without accelerations from the peloton, Lidl-Trek doing most of the work for race leader Pedersen to keep the front group on a short leash of two minutes.
The gap for the breakaway began to wash away when the bumpy terrain of the final 35km began, the gap dipping below a minute for the first time since the opening 10km.
Riders took caution on the rippling descents due to the slippery conditions, Bonnet going wide on a left-hand corner to brake on a dirt section and having to work to catch back to his companions. Across the next 10km, only Bonnet, Gougeard and Avoine remained at the front with aspirations to reach the adjusted marker for the clock to stop on stage 1, the peloton hovering 55 seconds back.
Into the final 10km, Gourgeard, 28 seconds off the GC lead, was the closest to overtaking Pedersen for the leader’s jersey. But Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Lidl-Trek maintained a steady pace at the front of the chase and had no interest in seeing a change in the GC. The trio’s margin was wiped away with 5km to go.
The closing flat kilometres allowed the sprint trains of Groupama-FDJ, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Lidl-Trek to assemble for the finale.
Pedersen followed an acceleration by teammate Alex Krisch through the final corner with 200 metres to the line to cross the line with two bike lengths back to Zingle.
Results
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