Place Name: Boulevard Louis Martin Bret
Address: 39a Boulevard Louis Martin Bret, 04100 Manosque, France
Details: February 15, 2025
There is 2,400M of elevation gain between Forcalquier and Manosque but since the sprinters made it to the line yesterday, there is a chance it could happen today as well. The potential for wind and the 6.5KM, 5% climb of the Col de l'Aire dei Masco which tops out 27.5KM from the line are the two question marks that could change the scenario today however.
Just like yesterday, there were no clouds which produced a stunning day but the wind calmed down and would not be a factor in the race. Daniel Årnes of Van Rysel Roubaix, Matis Louvel of Israel-Premier Tech, Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies, and Damien Girard of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur had over 3 minutes as a maximum advantage but with 51KM to go, the gap was down to 90 seconds with Bahrain Victorious and Unibet-Tietema Rockets leading the peloton down the Col de Viens. Arkéa-B&B Hotels took over in the peloton and brought the gap down to just 20 seconds. The breakaway split up when Vercher attacked on a short uncategorized climb with 36KM to go in a bid to stay away.
Lidl-Trek took over on the Col de l'Aire dei Masco and caught Vercher 3.5KM from the top. Bauke Mollema went to the front for Lidl-Trek which did damage further back in the group. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek attacked and was covered by Alex Cepeda of EF-Education EasyPost and Sander De Pestel of Decathlon AG2R. Pedersen led the trio over the top with 27.5KM to go with a group of 6 chasing just 10 seconds behind and the peloton of around 25 riders at 30 seconds.
After the descent, neither De Pestel or Cepeda wanted to work with Pedersen which gave the group of 6 the chance to get back on but not before Pedersen got 3 bonus seconds at the Intermediate Sprint point with 18.5KM to go. Fred Wright of Bahrain Victorious, who was among the chasers, attacked as soon as he made contact with the Pedersen group. That was brought back but his teammate Matej Mohorič countered and took Pedersen with him. Cofidis and EF-Education EasyPost brought back the chasers with 10KM to go and were in flying pursuit of Mohorič and Pedersen. The leaders worked well and held on to 45 seconds under the 1KM banner. Mohorič sat on Pedersen but it wouldn't matter. When Pedersen started his sprint with 180M to go and Mohorič instantly lost ground. Pedersen took the win and even had a 3 seconds gap back to Mohorič by the time he crossed the line. Wright took the sprint for third from the chase group that came in 16 seconds down. The GC now has Pedersen on top, 13 seconds ahead of Mohorič and 24 seconds to Wright.
Tags: Tour de la Provence, 2025, February, Stage 2, Tour de la Provence 2025, Forcalquier, Manosque, Daniel Årnes, Matis Louvel, Mattéo Vercher, Damien Girard, Bauke Mollema, Mads Pedersen, Alex Cepeda, Sander De Pestel, Fred Wright, Matej Mohorič