Casper van Uden raced to his second third place finish in two days at the Tour de Bretagne Cycliste, closing the gap to the top of the GC but remaining in third overall after two days. Van Uden went clear in a select chase group on the rolling finishing circuit in the final 30km, bridging over to the riders remaining out front from the day’s early break before sprinting to third place on the uphill drag to the line.

The day’s early break was formed of four riders as the stage soon settled into its rhythm, although behind there was still more action from the peloton as three riders went on the attach with 80 kilometres to race, eventually bridging over the gap of around two minutes around 10 kilometres later. Seven became two inside 50 kilometres to go with the peloton closing in fast, but with two team mates collaborating well at the front of the race the gap was maintained at just under one minute for some time before a powerful counter attack of 15 went clear 30 kilometres out.

The junction was eventually made 10 kilometres out as two riders broke clear from the peloton behind, including the stage winner, eventually getting across with five kilometres to go before the winning move came with around 1500 metres to go. Le Bon held on to the line to take the stage and the overall GC lead as Van Uden powered home for third, the peloton crossing some 24 seconds later.

“There was a lot of jumping around on the KOMs today but the boys did a good job controlling the race when we needed to,” Van Uden explained after the finish. “I felt good and tried something myself in the closing stages but in the end it was another third place at the finish.”

Team DSM coach Boris Zimine added after the stage: “Today, the guys controlled the race well in the beginning and were attentive and jumping a lot to ensure that the break that went was safe without any big teams. With 30 kilometres to go there were just two guys in the front when Casper’s chase group went clear. Then in the finale one rider surprised the front group to take the win, with Casper taking second from the group behind and third on the stage. It’s really good that Casper is showing once again that he’s really strong here so as a team we can keep looking forward to really helping him in the coming days and hopefully the win will come soon.”