Team Katusha was close to another victory on Friday when Alexey Tsatevich took second place in the mass sprint in the streets of Le Lude. After the 178 km of fourth and last stage, which started in l'Abbaye de l'Epau, Tsatevich just missed a bike length to capture the victory.
Fastest man was Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) who won ahead of Tsatevich and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale). Also Sven Erik Bystrøm finished in top ten (10th).
"Of course I am disappointed, but on the other hand it is not bad to lose to one of the best sprinters in the world. Nacer Bouhanni is not a nobody. I should have started my sprint a little bit later. Already at 500 meters from the finish, at the last corner, I was in second position. That was too far from the finish. In a reflex I waited a bit and too many other guys came over me. I restarted my sprint and made up the lost positions. I came back extremely fast but came too late to overcome Bouhanni. A pity, but I showed that I have the good legs," said Alexey Tsatevich.
The overall victory was for Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) who won ahead of Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) (1 second) and Adriano Malori (Movistar). Team Katusha's Tiago Machado finished 4th overall. Sven Erik Bystrøm (13th) was celebrated as best young rider and goes home with the blue jersey of that classification.
"Tiago tried everything to arrive on the final podium. He attacked at 20 km from the finish. With him in the break was also Navardauskas. Both riders were dangerous for the GC, but neither Cofidis or Tinkoff-Saxo were able to neutralize their break. In the end they needed a strong Movistar to help them. The Spanish team protected the podium place of Malori. I am proud of our guys. We showed a very active Katusha on French roads," said team director Dmitry Konyshev.
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