Alex Peters moves into Tour de Normandie lead

British rider Alex Peters Takes race lead in Tour de Normandie despite crash in finale of penultimate stage

Alex Peters, Tour de Normandie 2015

Britain's Alex Peters (SEG Racing) moved into the Tour de Normandie race lead in Martinvast this afternoon, despite missing out on the chance to win its penultimate stage following a final corner crash.

Peters was visibly upset not to have claimed the biggest win of his career to date at the end of a 169.5-kilometre stage held in wet and windy conditions.

The 20-year-old Londoner bridged to across to a seven-man lead group in the second half of the stage, despite starting the day just 18 seconds off race leader Dimitri Claeys.

>>> Owain Doull finishes third in Tour de Normandie stage four

Claeys's Verandas Willems team attempted to pull back the break, who had a 90-second advantage going into the final kilometre, but eventually ran out of firepower.

The break eventually decreased to just three, and after Peters crashed on the final bend, Norwegian Bjorn Tore Hoem (Team Joker) soloed the final 500m to take the win.

Peters remounted to take second, 11 seconds of his former Madison-Genesis team-mate Tom Scully, who led the peloton home.

Claeys dropped to second overall, sitting on the same time as Peters, with Scully just five seconds off in third. Team Wiggins's Owain Doull is 11th, 15 seconds behind, going into tomorrow's likely wind-affected stage from Torigni-sur-Vire to Caen.

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Nick Bull is an NCTJ qualified journalist who has written for a range of titles, as well as being a freelance writer at Beat Media Group, which provides reports for the PA Media wire which is circulated to the likes of the BBC and Eurosport. His work at Cycling Weekly predominantly dealt with professional cycling, and he now holds a role as PR & Digital Manager at SweetSpot Group, which organises the Tour of Britain.