Elia Viviani (Team Sky) won the opening stage of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, beating Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Danilo Napolitano (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) in a bunch finish in Saintes. It was the Italian's second win in three days after he claimed the EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg on Sunday.
The opening part of the stage was enlivened by a five-man escape featuring Julen Amezqueta (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), Kenneth Van Rooy (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Simone Velasco (Bardiani-CSF), Igor Boev (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Jérémy Leveu (Roubaix-Lille Métropole).
The quintet went clear after five kilometres and struck up a sound working alliance to establish a maximum lead of a little over four minutes, before Sky – with Ian Boswell very prominent – and Cofidis set about trimming their advantage down to more manageable proportions.
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FDJ and Direct Energie joined the chase shortly after the midway point, which added a little more urgency to the pursuit. With 60 kilometres to go, the gap was down to just 1:15 and it was clear that the escapees were living on borrowed time.
While the leading group began to fragment, with Velasco and Boev pressing clear together, Direct Energie sought to split the peloton inside the final 50 kilometres, with two sustained bouts of forcing in crosswind sections, but despite sending a frisson through the bunch, the race remained together ahead of the finale.
Boev and Velasco, meanwhile, were swept up with 25 kilometres, at which point a bunch finish seemed inevitable. Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) has quickly built up a reputation for a Thomas Voeckler-style never-say-die attitude in his two seasons in the peloton, however, and the Frenchman made an ambitious move off the front in the finale, and he was joined by Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro) and Luca Wackermann (Bardiani-CSF), but they were unable to shake off the attentions of the sprinters' teams.
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