CULT Energy Pro Cycling’s Mads Pedersen was on a roll during today’s 141 kilometer second stage of Route du Sud from Auch to St. Gaudens where the 19-year-old Dane broke clear from the morning break. But again, the stage was wrapped up in a hectic bunch sprint where Michael Carbel dropped to 4th overall by finishing 10th.

The young Dane Mads Pedersen was caught with 13 kilometers to go where he was swept up by a chase group and at the time, the gap to the field was only 56 seconds. In the pack, Europcar and Colombia took charge of the chasing while CULT Energy were lurking behind the locomotive preparing for the eventual bunch sprint. Entering the final kilometers, Christopher Juul-Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) made a final attempt to outfox the bunch but it was all in vain.

In the very final meters, the bunch stampeded past the front group and in the sprint, CULT Energy’s Michael Carbel took 10th place while Bryan Coquard (Europcar) won the stage and took the overall lead.

DS Luke Roberts said:

“Because of the short distance today we wanted to put a rider in the breakaway and Mads jumped head first into the very first break that went away. However, the peloton never allowed a gap bigger than 3 minutes so with 30 kilometers to go, Mads tried to go on his own but he was caught by the chasers and swept up by the pack close to the finish line as Europcar shut them down. In the meantime, we put Carbel in a favorable position and by finishing 10th, he retained his overall third position.

“Tomorrow, it’s going to be a different kind of riders in focus. The high mountain stage will probably be an avid test area for the likes of Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador but I hope to be able to put a rider in the morning break. From the peak of the final climb, there’ll be 20 kilometers of descending towards the finish line so you’ll have to be really strong to make it if you solo your way on the final mountain."

After the stage, Mads Pedersen was on the podium to receive the honors as the most aggressive rider today.