On Wednesday evening there was champagne for the FDJ team in Angers to celebrate the great success of Anthony Roux in the second stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe, the first this year for the French squad. He is still third overall and remains in contention for the overall win.

In the afternoon, Roux had the task of giving it his all in the 6.8km time trial in Angers, a few hours after his great effort to win the stage.

"As expected,Italian Adriano Malori (Movistar) won the time trial but he is one of the best riders in the world," sports director Franck Pineau said.

Malori was the only rider to go below the eight-minute mark (7.58), beating his teammate Alex Dowsett by 9 seconds and Lithuanian Navardauskas (Garmin-Cannondale), winner of the event in 2014, by 15 seconds.

"Anthony and Arthur Vichot posted the same time, 30 seconds slower than Malori and frankly, I think they are in their place," Pineau added. "With the bonus in the morning, Antony is third overall at 12 seconds while Arthur is also in contention. On Thursday it is the queen stage which finishes at the summit of the Mount des Avaloirs and we have good cards. Even very good cards..."

Hopefully Roux won't be bothered by the bout of bronchitis for which he is receiving antibiotic treatment.