Ireland's Darren Rafferty and Kevin McCambridge spent the second stage of Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux battling the crosswinds as Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ piled the pressure on.
Rafferty, who is in his first season out of the juniors, just missed the front group when the decisive split was made about 90km into the 170km stage from Bernissart to Tertre. The pace ramped up on a 2.3km stretch of cobbles about 90km and when Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ placed all of its team in the front group, they drove the pace.
Rafferty and some of his Hagens Berman Axeon were in the second group and while they rode to close down the leaders, those up front were too strong over the final two hours of racing.
At the finish, after four hours of racing, just 13 men remained in the front group and they had gained 1:07 on the second group, which numbered 30 riders, contained Rafferty and team mate Toby Perry. After the first two groups on the road the gaps were much bigger, with the next group almost another seven minutes back.
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McCambridge, who is riding his first race of the season after a delayed start due to Covid-19, finished with Trinity Racing team mate Blake Quick some 10:36 down on the winner;Jensen Plowright (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ).
Yesterday's opening stage - 132km into Mont Saint-Aubert - featured a short sharp climb to the finish, with the peloton splitting. The stage was won by Lorenzo Milesi (Development Team DSM) with Rafferty 18th at 1:07 and McCambridge 80th at 2:02.
Going into tomorrow's final day of action - a 14.2km in the morning followed by a 95.7km road stage in the afternoon - Stian Fredheim (Uno-X Dare Development) leads overall with Rafferty 20th at 2:28 and McCambridge 66th at 12:24.
