Another cold and hectic day characterized the second stage of the Etoile de Besseges, Nimes-Allegre des Fumades of157,1 km on Thursday February 5th: this time, no one managed to avoid the predictable sprint won by Belgian Roy Jans(Wanty), but a big number of contenders were ruled out by a massive crash happened at the front end of the bunch with 1,5 km to go, involving – among others – overall leader Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal), sprint favorite Bryan Coquard (Europcar) and two Colombia-Coldeportes riders – Sebastian Molano and Edwin Avila.

“The road was very narrow," Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi said, "and in such hectic situations, things like this can happen at any moment. It’s a matter of seconds: our sprinters had taken a good position, and they could have been in the run for a strong result. Good news is that both Edwin and Sebas emerged almost unscathed, and we’ll be able try again tomorrow.”

In the GC, Carlos Julian Quintero is 34th, 27 seconds behind overall leader Boeckmans.

The day was marked by freezing temperature and an extremely strong wind, to the point that the peloton stopped three times to discuss with the organization the opportunity to reduce the stage’s length, eventually to no avail. Dutchman Tim Kerkhof (Roompot) was certainly the bravest man on the day, leading the way solo for many kilometres against the headwind, but it all came down to the mass sprint , with Jans prevailing over Alexandre Blain (Marseille) and Bob Jungels (Trek).

Tomorrow, Friday, the third stage will be run on a circuit around Besseges, to be repeated for time for an overall distance of 152,6 km.