The Tour Méditerranéen ended today with the 192 km 5th stage from Bandol to Grasse with the Côte de Tannoron (5.6 km at an average gradient of 5.3 %) coming 43 km from the finish line.
Going into the final stage Maxime Monfort (RadioShack Leopard) held a slender 1 second lead over Lars Boom (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) with Thomas Lövkvist (IAM Cycling) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) a further second adrift.
An early break saw Jérôme, Kern (Europcar), Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Roy, Pinot (FDJ), Zingle (Cofidis), D. Wyss (BMC), Jungels (Radioshack Leopard), Petrov (Saxo Tinkoff), Izaguirre (Euskaltel), Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM), Marino (Sojasun), Perichon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Sella et Facchini (Androni Giocattoli) establish a lead which swelled to more than 3 minutes before the peloton started reacting.
At the foot of the Côte de Tanneron, though, the breakaway still enjoyed a lead of two and a half minutes and when Pinot (FDJ) crossed the summit as the first rider, the peloton was still trailing by 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Towards the finish, however, the peloton managed to catch the breakaway and the stage ended in a bunch sprint, which was won by Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol) ahead of Francesco Reda (Androni). Maxime Monforte was dropped towards the end of the stage and had to surrender his overall lead, allowing Thomas Löfkvist (IAM Cycling) to triumph ahead of Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R).
Stage 5
1 Jurgen Roelandts - Lotto-Belisol
2 Francesco Reda - Androni
3 Mikel Nieve - Euskatel-Euskadi
4 Davide Malacarne - Team Europcar
5 Bauke Mollerma - Blanco
General Classification
1 Thomas Löfkvist - IAM Cycling
2 Jean-Christophe Péraud - AG2R
3 Francesco Reda - Androni
4 Maxime Monfort - RadioShack
5 Nicolas Roche - Team Saxo-Tinkoff
14.05 - 19.05: 4 Jours de Dunkerque |
15.05 - 19.05: Tour of Hellas |
15.05 - 19.05: Orlen Nations GP |
16.05 - 19.05: Vuelta a Burgos Feminas |
16.05 - 19.05: Tour of Sakarya |
16.05 - 19.05: Vuelta a Santiago del Estero |
17.05 - 19.05: SPIE Juniorendriedaagse |
18.05 - 19.05: Trophée Centre Morbihan |
19.05: Antwerp Port Epic Ladies |
19.05: GP Gorenjska |
Alessandro BARONI 23 years | today |
Henrik ÅBOM 44 years | today |
David MEYS 47 years | today |
Yeonwoo YOO 26 years | today |
Indrit XHUMRA 35 years | today |
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