Charmig Times His Attack To Perfection To Win Stage 2 In Le Puy-en-Velay As The Break Beats The Bunch Again
For the second day running the breakaway had the final word at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and this time it was Anthon Charmig who emerged from the move to win stage 2 in Le Puy-en-Velay. The Danish climber of Uno-X Mobility judged the punishing final ascent to perfection, kicking clear of his last remaining companions and holding on to take the biggest victory of his career on a brutal, rain-soaked day.
The stage was the longest of the rebranded Dauphiné — 234.3 kilometres from Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux with some 3,685 metres of climbing packed into a relentlessly undulating route. Heavy rain swept across the Massif Central for much of the afternoon, thinning the early break and turning the closing circuits into a test of nerve as much as legs. A large group had been allowed up the road, and with the general classification teams content to let the move contest the win, the day became a private battle for the stage.
Charmig bided his time as the break fractured on the categorised climbs, then launched on the final ascent when the pace had already done its damage. Only a handful could respond, and one by one they cracked. Behind him Henri-François Renard-Haquin led the chase home for second at 41 seconds, with Vlad Van Mechelen taking third on the same time. The peloton, marshalled but unwilling to commit to a doomed pursuit, rolled in well down the road.
The result left the overall picture largely intact at the top. Alex Baudin kept the yellow jersey for a second day after his solo win in the opener, the EF Education-EasyPost man still leading Ramses Debruyne by 32 seconds. The new generation of climbers who came here to rehearse for July remained tightly bunched: Isaac del Toro sat eighth at 44 seconds, with Cian Uijtdebroeks ninth and home favourite Paul Seixas tenth at the same margin, all of them waiting for the terrain that would let them race.
The breakaway's continued dominance reshuffled the secondary jerseys. Nadav Raisberg carried the points lead into stage 3 after again featuring in the intermediate sprints, while Clément Braz Afonso took control of the mountains classification on a day that handed out climbing points by the bucketload. For Uno-X Mobility, Charmig's win was a statement of intent from a team that has built its reputation on exactly this kind of aggressive, opportunistic racing.
Not everyone enjoyed the conditions. Wout van Aert, easing back into competition after a difficult spring, again found himself off the pace on the steeper gradients, his comeback still very much a work in progress. The Belgian's struggles were a reminder that for many in the bunch this race is about kilometres in the legs rather than the result sheet, with the Tour de France looming large on the horizon.
Attention now turns to the stage that will finally separate the GC contenders. Stage 3 is a 28.4-kilometre team time trial around Perreux, an undulating test that should blow apart the standings and hand control of the race to the strongest squads. With Baudin's lead measured in seconds and the Tour favourites' teams lining up against one another, the breakaway's two-day holiday is about to end.