Faun Tour Femmes: Juliette Berthet best in two-up sprint for stage 2 victory as runner-up Niamh Fisher-Black takes GC lead

With two stages to go, the two riders are tied on time, but Fisher-Black leads the general classification by dint of finishing two places ahead of Berthet on stage 1.

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For the second stage of what was once snappily-named the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche, the rebranded Faun Tour Femmes took on a 106.1 km route starting and finishing in Dieulefit.

After an attacking opening, two riders got away, Maite Urteaga (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Elisa Valtulini (Vini Fantini-BePink), building a lead approaching four minutes.

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With almost 1,500 metres of climbing, the route consisted of three laps, each tackling the second category Col du Pertuis, and on the second ascent not only was Valtulini dropped, but the gap began to drop.

At the start of the final 35km lap, Urteaga’s lead sat at 1:35 with attacks from Lidl-Trek in what remained in the peloton lifting the pace, but a concerted effort from Anna Henderson provided the impetus to bring the Spanish rider back, and she was caught with 29km to go.

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As the peloton swelled, the pace eased and Ema Comte (France) attacked, the 21-year-old allowed a lead of 1:50. However, she was brought back by Berthet and Fisher-Black at the base of the final climb with 10km left and the duo got away.