Danish professional cyclist Anthon Charmig won the second stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.
The 28-year-old from the Uno-X Mobility team emerged as a soloist from a breakaway group on Monday after 234.2 kilometers between Saint-Martin-Le-Vinoux and Le Puy-en-Velay. It is the biggest success of his career.
The Frenchman Henri-Francois Renard-Haquin (Picnic PostNL) and the Belgian Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain-Victorious) completed the podium, the duo reached the finish line 41 seconds behind on the longest section of the preparation race for the Tour de France.
Seixas in the peloton
French hopeful Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) arrived with the peloton over three minutes after Charmig, as did his main rivals Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek).
Alex Baudin from France from the EF Education-EasyPost team remains in the lead. The winner of the opening stage is 32 seconds ahead of the Belgian Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech).
The stage race serves as a dress rehearsal for 19-year-old Seixas for his eagerly awaited debut at the Tour of France (July 4th to 26th). Tour defending champion Tadej Pogacar, Giro champion Jonas Vingegaard and German hopeful Florian Lipowitz are skipping the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, the successor race to the Critérium du Dauphiné, this year.
Charming’s decisive attack
Charmig made the decisive attack shortly before the last of the five mountain classifications, just eleven kilometers from the finish. It is his second professional victory. Charmig celebrated his first four years ago at the Tour of Oman. Germans played no role.
There is a 28.4 kilometer long team time trial on Tuesday – and thus a little foretaste of the start of the tour. The same rules apply as at the start of the Great Loop in Barcelona. Each driver gets their own time.