First pro victory for Sylvain Moniquet; Belgian rider from Cofidis breaks away from a strong group and wins stage 2 of the Tour du Limousin

It was Gachignard who took the first leader's jersey on day one with a fine sprint. Keeping it on day two was never going to be easy. The second stage between the start in Thiviers and the finish in Grèzes featured a lot of short hills in the final. The finish was also at the top of a climb.

Starting with a lead in that hilly zone: that must have been what Victor Hannes (Intermarché-Wanty development team), Mathias Sanlaville (Atria-Montluçon), Edgar Curto (Illes Balears Arabay), Célestin Guillon, and Kenny Molly (both Van Rysel Roubaix) had in mind. The five riders quickly broke away and gained a lead of just over six minutes on the peloton.

With that lead, the breakaway arrived at the start of the hill zone, where it became clear that the climbs were certainly not challenging. The successive climbing kilometers remained below five, and the average gradients did not exceed 5.6%. It was therefore on the first hills that the peloton began to close in.

With just under fifty kilometers to go, Hannes was the first rider at the front to drop back, while the peloton was closing in fast. With 22 kilometers to go, it was definitely over for the remaining leaders. With an almost complete peloton, we arrived at the final hills.

And that's where the big names started to attack. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale sent Paul Lapeira, Andrea Vendrame, and Nicolas Prudhomme to the front, Arkéa-B&B Hotels had Ewen Costiou among others at the head of the race, and TotalEnergies saw Alexandre Delettre return. With 5 kilometers to go, the gap to the yellow jersey group was just under a minute.

In the final three kilometers to the finish, Norway's Martin Tjotta (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) began to set the pace for his teammate Costiou, who had finished second in the first stage. After his work, Sam Maisonobe (Cofidis) fell and got a small gap. Tjotta managed to get back and once again increase the pace. Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) then went with 1.5 kilometers to go, and when the Belgian looked back, he immediately saw a 10-second gap. The rider managed to cross the finish line solo, with a comfortable lead over the chasers. Delettre finished second, ahead of Costiou.