Álex Martín explores his options in a breakaway hunted at the end and Javi Serrano finishes eighth in Lannemezan

44º Ronde de l´Isard
Stage 2: Faudoas – Lannemezan (167,7 km)

Eighth place for Javi Serrano from Madrid this Thursday in the second stage of the Ronde de L’Isard, a fraction in which the fastest was the British rider Lewis Askey, who attacked in the final part of the stage and managed to arrive with just three seconds over the main peloton. On the route to Lannemezan, the U23 team of the Contador Foundation took centre stage. Álex Martín from Barcelona was involved in an offensive move in the last 50 kilometres in which he persevered, alone in the last part, until the final two kilometres.

Once again, it was not an easy day, with moments of calm and others of tension in the peloton and with the appearance of crashes. If in the first stage it was David Martín from Seville who was involved in one, this time it was Fernando Tercero from La Mancha who fell. It happened around the 90th kilometre, but the rider ended up returning to the discipline of the peloton. “It doesn’t seem to have been much, now it’s time to recover for Friday”, said the rider from Valdepeñas. “A rider went to the ground in front and ended up forming a good pile-up”.

A breakaway of four riders opened the race for many kilometres, but the movement came to an end and gave way to a new phase of the race in which several teams moved. Among them, the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team U23, led by Álex Martín who, once in the lead of the race, did not hesitate to break away again, with a solo move, before being caught near the finish line. “At some point I did think that we could make it. But mainly because the teams had been pulling for quite a few kilometres and because before our move it had been hard for them to bring down a previous one. Just when they caught them, I went off with Maxime Limousin and Luca van Boven. We knew that at the end the peloton would push hard, but I always thought there was a chance and that’s why I went flat out until the last moment”.

This Friday, Pyrenees. The Horquette d’Ancizan and the Aspin mark the middle of the third stage, 134 km between Pierrefitte-Nestalas and Bagneres-de-Bigorre.

[📷  DirectVeló (1, 3, 4)]