Several riders and their teams were counting the cost of a crash-marred finale on stage 2 of Etoile de Bessèges, with road rash and ripped cycling kit everywhere at the finish.
Ethan Hayter of Ineos Grenadiers was among a group of fallers as the riders tangled when they were competing for position about 4km from the finish of the 153.8km stage into La Calmette; Julien Duval (AG2R Citroën) the first to fall and bringing others with him.
But the real damage was done deep inside the final kilometre when the main field came to a roundabout about 500m from the finish.
One half of the front of the bunch went left and the other half went right. Of those who went left, there was a bad fall as they exited the roundabout; Edvald Boasson Hagen (Total Direct Energie) sliding out and others coming unstuck as a result.
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That incident saw some riders taking evasive action only to dart across the road and hit the riders in the section of the bunch of that had taken the roundabout on the right.
In a bid to avoid the crash on the left Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) took evasive action and darted across the road, being hit by another rider but somehow managing to come to a halt against the crowd control barriers having avoided actually falling.
Only a small group of men at the very front of the bunch avoided the crash at the roundabout and sprinted in to fight for victory with Timothy Dupont (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) winning it
from Pierre Barbier (Delko) and European champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos).
Yesterday’s stage winner Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) was 5th and retains the race lead. The only Irish rider in the race, and one of Pedersen’s lead out men, Ryan Mullen of Trek Segafredo finished in the bunch and there were no reports that he was one of the fallers.
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