Stage two of the 2019 Tour of Bretagne will go down as a hugely successful one for the Wales Racing Academy as Pete Kibble retained the King of the Mountains jersey and moved up to 8th on the General Classification after a successful day in the break while Alberto Dainese (SEG Racing) took home the stage victory at Quimperle.
After taking hold of the jersey on stage one, Kibble was determined to add to his margin on what was an undulating second stage from Bannalec to Quimperle. As on stage one the breakaway was quick to establish and Kibble made sure he was in the move, getting away with Alexis Renard (Cote D'Armor) and Alexys Brunel (Groupama FDJ).
From then on the trio worked well together to build up a healthy advantage, which at its highest was around the three minute mark. Stage two was all about keeping the jersey and as the first KOM came at Kaliform after 54km, Kibble finished second to pick up 8 points. But from then on Kibble asserted his dominance and took maximum points at Kervelen, Locunole and La Villeneuve respectively.
After the stage Kibble spoke about retaining the KOM jersey: "I was super chuffed to get up the road once more. The objective was to mop up as many mountain points as I could and that was achieved."
"I'm happy to build a bit of a buffer now going to the rest of the race now," Kibble continued.
For the rest of the academy it was a solid day as they all finished safely in the bunch, with Will Roberts and Joshua Price looking to do something in the stage finale.
"In the final 20-30km things started to get chaotic," Roberts said. "Coming into the last few kilometres, myself and Josh got stuck into it, but couldn't find enough space to move up in that final 1km. But there are still opportunities to come, so I'm looking forward to what lies ahead," he continued.
Prior to the stage, head coach Rob Partridge had a plan of attack, but Kibble quickly tore that up by getting in the early break. Talking about the stage plan, Partrdige said: "The plan was for five of them to rotate and follow any moves. But there was always going to be opportunities for all of them to gain something from the stage."
"All the lads did a good job looking each other in the bunch, so I was pleased with that aspect," Partridge continued.
Speaking about Kibble's performance, Partridge said: "Pete showed again how much he wants to acheive something from this race, picking up near maximum points in the KOM, riding really well, really clever."
Main image credit - Huw Fairclough
