This morning Anthony Roux won the second stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe after a break of 83 kilometers with Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Quentin Jauregui (AG2R-La Mondiale). The great joy spread like a tidal wave in the whole FDJ team, from Angers to the Basque Country and Schoten where the team is riding at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Scheldeprijs.

"I am proud, we are all proud of what Anthony has done today. It was a long awaited victory but it is beautiful, very beautiful," sports director Franck Pineau said before kissing the mechanic and rushing to the bus to celebrate the win.

This breakaway launched by Voeckler at km 0 in the company of Jauregui inspired Anthony Roux who managed to bridge the gap after short chase. Being a short stage, the peloton did not give them an advantage of more than 1.15 but the break handled it perfectly.

"I was the only sports director to pass the bunch," said Franck Pineau. "When I got to the break, I did not have time to talk with Anthony. Voeckler immediately asked me to stay behind. He told me that they would do a 3-rider team time trial when they got to the circuit in Angers."

Obviously Roux agreed. The gap dropped to 20 seconds before entering Angers and then went back to 50 seconds. The three riders still had 52 seconds when they started the final 6.2km lap. With 3km to it was 35 seconds and at the finish line it was just 5 seconds. However, Roux had already raised his arms.

Winner of the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2011, he took his first win since the 2013 Tour of Burgos. This fourteenth victory allows him a smile and gives morale that he has missed. He will benefit from that when he tries to defend his lead in the 6.8km afternoon time trial.

"I am very happy for the team and for myself," he told Cyclingpro.net. "We hadn't won yet and there was some pressure, more for the leaders than for me because I am not expected to win. However, [manager] Marc Madiot had started to put a bit of pressure on everyone. Is have had a lot of crashes and recently I suffered from bronchitis. I was on antibiotics four times during the past two months and I am still. I'm not in great shape. Therefore, in the break, I was not sure of winning even though I was the fastest of the three."