Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) struck out solo on a huge attack in the final kilometre and captured the first professional victory of his career on stage 3 of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque.
Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) finished second in the rush behind which could not close down the 22-year-old's acceleration, while Alex Zingle (Visma-Lease a Bike) took third.
With bonus seconds, Zingle holds on to the GC lead headed into the final two stages on the weekend. Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), who finished fifth on the stage, dropped from second to third on GC.
Gautherat, who was second last Sunday at Tro-Bro Léon, jumped 14 spots to take Askey's place on second in the overall.
"I had told myself I would win this week, and I did," he said after the finish.
How it unfolded
From the start in Valenciennes, the peloton headed south for 5km to pass near Famars, then begin a counter-clockwise loop of 25km, repeated six times. Each full lap included two sections of cobblestones, Quérénaing à Maing (2.6km long) and Famars à Artes, the latter set up by a punchy, categorised climb of half a kilometre at Maing.
With 100km to go, a group of four ventured off together for the first breakaway - Antoine Huby (Soudal-QuickStep), Casper Pedersen, Killian Théot (Van Rysel Roubaix) and Javier Ibáñez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). They opened an account of three minutes, but were reeled back to the peloton with 61km to go.
More attacks followed across the next 20km, with a move from Alec Segaert (Lotto), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Matis Louvel (Israel-Premier Tech) looking strong.
With 35km to go, the lead trio headed to the dry, dusty pave and their banked time depleted to under one minute and then saw a reconnection from behind, Cofidis, Israel-Premier Tech, Soudal-QuickStep and Uno-X involved at the front of the chase.
After a few more unsuccessful attacks, the peloton was together for the sixth and final circuit. Gil Gelders (Soudal-QuickStep) accelerated away with 20km to go. He stayed away for 8km, caught and passed with a fight for position at the front by Groupama-FDJ, riding for Askey, and Ineos Grenadiers, riding for Ben Swift, but no Visma-Lease a Bike yellow jerseys close by, yet, in support of Zingle.
The road narrowed and the pace slackened on the approach to the final pass of cobbles, with a small downhill on the second half of the sector, then 4km to the finish. Groupama-FDJ quickly put two riders at the front with Askey. Then Cedric Beullens and Elia Viviani manoeuvred to the front for Lotto, setting the pace back on the tarmac.
Italian champion Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana) sparked a noticeable acceleration in the peloton with 2.2km to go on the flat run-in to the finish, and headed through the roundabout that signalled the final kilometre, Gautherat struck out solo on a huge attack, which proved successful and just held off late reactions from the favourites.
Results
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