Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) benefited from a lazy peloton in the opening half-stage of the Giro del Trentino and took the stage win and the leader's jersey as a breakaway finished almost 7 minutes ahead of the bunch. Having endured a two-year victory drought, the Frenchman was happy to finally feel the joy of victory again.

Most people had expected the opening half-stage of the Giro del Trentino to be an innocuous affair for the sprinters. However, most people chose to keep their powder dry for the afternoon's team time trial and this meant that no one was willing to bring back the day's early break.

The man to benefit most from this was Maxime Bouet. The Frenchman was the biggest name in the 8-man move and he did not disappoint as he was part of the front trio which emerged over the top of the day's only climb, the Inselberg. In the end, he outsprinted his companions Josef Cerny (CCC) and Michael Rodriguez (Colombia) to take both the stage win and the overall lead.

Bouet has always been a strong sprinter and so he was confident that he would be able to beat his competitions in a final dash to the line.

"It is really incredible," he said. "Today, I didn’t expect to be in the breakaway and I thought, we'll see what the result is. The breakaway quickly had an advantage of up to six minutes. The gap even increased to nine minutes and with only a 120km long stage, you start to think of the stage win."

"I'm happy because I adopted a very good tactic. I let the Colombian rider (Rodriguez, ed.) get tired on the final climb and the Czech rider (Cerny, ed.) ride hard to increase the gap. I know I'm a good sprinter and I was confident in case of a sprint finish."

The victory is Bouet's 5th as a professional when he won a stage of the 2010 Tour de l'Ain. Hence, it was a relief for the Frenchman to show his doubters that he still has what it takes to come out triumphant.

"I spent three weeks without racing and I returned to competition in this Giro del Trentino," he said "My victory proves that you can trust me, that I’m serious when I train and my efforts pay off . During this break, I left my home to train to avoid being tempted. It had been two years since I last won, and some persons doubted  my ability to win but the tide turned."

Even though he lost the lead to Cerny in the afternoon's team time trial due to a disappointing performance in the team time trial, more may be in store for Bouet. He was 7th in the Criterium International in March and 20th in last year's Vuelta which proves his formidable climbing abilities. The pre-race favourites face a major task if they want to take back the time on the French Ag2r rider.

They get their first chance in a 224,8km mammoth stage in the mountains tomorrow. Starting at 13.15, you can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.