Sam Bewley breaks free in France

Sep 12th, 11. RadioShack Kiwi Sam Bewley soloed off the front in the late stages of the 200km Grand Prix de Fourmies in France today.

"I just wanted to give it a nudge at the end and see what would happen," Bewley told RoadCycling.co.nz. "I decided I would just race, not think too much because if nothing happened we still had Robbie [McEwen] for the sprint."

The 24 year old followed a small group attack with 45km left to ride, just before the start of the five finishing laps. 

They worked well to create a 45sec gap, but with most of the teams wanting a sprint finish the peloton was motivated to reel them in before the line.

"As the bunch was catching I just tried a to keep a gap. I ended up alone and was caught about 8km to go," said Bewley who spent close to 10km out in front.

In the messy sprint finish, Guilliame Blot from French pro-team Bretagne-Schuller stole the victory from the more favoured pro-tour team sprinters. 

"Absolute kamikaze finish at Fourmies today, got switched into 3 times by the same nutter. Good form, poor execution. Ended up 8th," tweeted McEwen.

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