Nathan Haas sprinted to second on the opening stage of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe – Pays de la Loire. The Australian snagged his first European podium of the season in Varades behind Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

A three rider breakaway dominated the day, opening up an advantage of nearly 15 minutes. Cannondale-Garmin sent Alex Howes to the front to close down the escape, and Howes spent more than three hours there in pursuit of the leaders before successfully bringing the race back together for the sprint.

“Ramunas [Navardauskas] won this race last year in amazing style," Haas said. "The race is suits us – with guys like Ramunas and myself and guys like Ben [King], who can always find or make an opportunity, and Alex, who can do a little bit of everything. We’re certainly here to compete for general classification.

"A three rider break went away early, and Alex rode the front for 140km until we brought it back, so an extra huge thanks to him for keeping the general classification alive for Ramunas. I wasn’t going to let his work go to waste – and I knew I wanted to do something in the sprint so I freelanced. The team helped in the last couple kilometres, but it was really chaotic. I just needed to stay near Bouhanni, which I managed to do. Bouhanni is world class, and it was always going to be hard to get over him – which I didn’t – but I gave it my best shot. Of course, I’m hungry for a win after coming so close! We have the class to do a great race here and we’re motivated to keep pushing for results.”