Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) took control of the Tour La Provence general classification on Wednesday, and with just one stage remaining is primed to take his first UCI win of the 2017 season. Dennis finished second to stage 2 winner Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) and now leads the overall, tied on time with three other riders.
"I don't see why we can't win the overall with either myself or one of the other guys on the team," he said in an interview posted on BMC Racing's website. "The team is super strong, and we have shown that today and yesterday. We are all working hard, and I think it is our race to lose at this point."
The three-day race started Tuesday with a 205.9km stage from Aubagne to Istres won by Justin Jules (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect) in nearly five hours. Dennis finishes 38th on the day but was tied on time with 81 riders, led by Jules at the top of the general classification.
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Dennis seized the overall lead during stage 2 by infiltrating a move that escaped with about 10km to go after the original breakaway had been caught. When Geniez attacked near the finish in La Ciotat, Dennis countered to finish second in a group of four that had four seconds on the field.
"The initial attack was from Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), and Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing) was doing a great job keeping him in check up the climb before Geniez attacked. He was going pretty hard, so it came to a point where I thought it was now or never, so I went with the next move to form the breakaway.
"We were working well together, and we knew that we were holding onto a slight gap," Dennis said. "At 3km to go, I turned around and could see the peloton, so I knew they were coming up fast. We lost some time on the last section, but that is normal with a breakaway that close to the finish."
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