Long, straight roads created the perfect opportunity for the sprinters to dash into the finish in Parc des Oiseaux, and Team Katusha’s Alexey Tsatevich did his part in creating an exciting finish. The Russian rider was in the heart of the action, coming in fast for fifth place behind winner Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

"The sprint was a little bit chaotic and nervous with a lot of strong sprinters in front. Tiago Machado did a good job for me today. He held me in front of the bunch from 20 km to 5 km to go and helped me to get a good position for the final. I tried to do my best and I fought for 3rd place, but I missed just a little to reach the podium. Anyway, it was a good sprint and my form is coming up day by day.  I feel the progress and hope in next days I will get something more," said Alexey Tsatevich.

Bouhanni’s straight-up-the-middle sprint had him the clear winner ahead of Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) after 4:23.46 of riding on the 173 km course departing from Le Bourget-du-Lac. The main field came in together to keep Peter Kennaugh (Sky) in the leader’s jersey by  2-seconds to Modolo and Bouhanni.

Three riders went away in the early part of the race, including mountain jersey wearer Daniel Teklehaimanot of MTN-Qhubeka. The trio cooperated and built an advantage of more than six minutes and fought hard to stay clear. But the wide open straight roads made it difficult for the break, with the main field at times able to see their prey, and in the closing kilometers it was all together for the mass sprint taken by Bouhanni.

A crash in the middle of the peloton just before 20 km to go saw several splits in the field, with Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez held up behind the riders down. With teammates surrounding him, “Purito” made it back to the main field in plenty of time to arrive at the finish in the main group.

Race organizers are putting cameras on various bikes throughout the week and today Team Katusha’s Gatis Smukulis and Vladimir Isaychev wore the cameras onboard. 

Tuesday’s stage 3 is the Team Time Trial. At 24,5 km, the stage begins in Roanne and ends in Montagny.