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| - Phil Bauhaus edged the closing sprint in the Tour de La Provence in Salon-de-Provence on Sunday as Ivan Sosa retained his overall lead to win the four-day race. Bauhaus, a German who rides for Team Bahrain, burst from a pack containing some big names to catch Davide Ballerini, an Italian with Deceuninck-Quick-Step, and French veteran Nacer Bouhanni of Arkea-Samsic, on the line to win in a photo-finish. Sosa, a Colombian who rides for Ineos, had taken the overall lead from Ballerini on Mont Ventoux on Saturday. With the peloton finishing in a group at the end of a 163.2 kilometre run from Avignon, his hold on first was never in danger. In a heavyweight battle for podium places, world champion Julian Alaphilippe, a Frenchman with Deceuninck, wrested second from a better known Ineos Colombian, the 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal. Alaphilippe started the day in third, two seconds behind Bernal, but his team caught Ineos out at the start. Deceuninck set a blistering early pace to grab control of the peloton and set Alaphilippe up to win an intermediate sprint after only 18 kilometres. He grabbed a three-second bonus which was enough to squeeze past Bernal by one second in the standings. bir/hf/fbx/pb/mw
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