News: Tour Du Var – Stage 1

Bauke Mollema has won the opening stage of the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var and now leads overall. He went very early in the sprint so as not to get boxed in and held on to win from classics legend Greg Van Avermaet and Valentin Madouas.

News: Tour Du Var – Stage 1

In a race ranked 2.1, over half the field comprised of WorldTour teams, the maximum for a race of this category and on the start line was Tom Pidcock, Baby Giro winner in 2020 and starting an exciting journey on the road at WorldTour level. The first day of the three-day stage race took place from Biot to the Col de Gourdon with a 7.8 kilometre climb that had to be climbed three times.

Early doors, a leading group with five riders formed; Otto Vergaerde and Tom Wirtgen were the instigators of the breakaway and they saw Óscar Cabedo, Flavien Maurelet and Jérémy Leveau joined them. The five were allowed a maximum lead of six minutes before the strong teams like Trek-Segafredo and INEOS Grenadiers set the pace. At the foot of the first passage of the Gourdon, the lead was only two and a half minutes.

On the Gourdon, Leveau had to let his four fellow refugees go, while Dylan van Baarle led the peloton with his teammates from INEOS Grenadiers. On the almost eight kilometre climb, young rider Andrea Mifsud counter attacked but the rider from the Swiss Racing Academy was caught again on the second passage of the Gourdon. On the climb, Vergaerde rode away from his breakaway companions Wirtgen, Cabedo and Maurelet, but a thinned out peloton was already on his heels.

Before the summit, all the attackers had been caught and there was still more than 25 kilometres to the finish. On the descent, several riders tried to get away but what was left of the peloton was grouped together for the last ascent of the Gourdon. It didn’t take long before there was an attack and a small group including Valentin Madouas, Ben O’Connor, Krists Neilands and Quentin Pacher rode away after which Pacher went on alone.

He was caught in the last three kilometres when Groupama-FDJ took up control as the French team clearly had their sights on the stage. The race was decided on the steep final kilometre climb when Bauke Mollema started his sprint very early so as not to get boxed in and managed to hold on to his long effort until the finish. Greg van Avermaet finished in second place, ahead of Valentin Madouas.

1. Bauke Mollema
2. Greg van Avermaet
3. Valentin Madouas
21. Geraint Thomas
22. Ben Tulett
34. Simon Carr
38. Tao Geoghegan Hart (had a little crash but is okay)
86. Tom Pidcock
90. Stuart Balfour