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Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) fended off assaults on the ultimate stage to carry on and win the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, the primary stage race victory of his younger profession.
The 21-year-old Frenchman, who turned professional final yr, got here below assault from Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) on the uphill run to Vence throughout the closing third stage, with Paret-Peintre happening to take the stage win by 5 seconds.
Vauquelin took third place from the choose chase group, along with his 23-second GC lead over Paret-Peintre earlier than the stage sufficient to see him grasp on to take the yellow jersey by seven seconds.
Stage 2 winner Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) was second on the day and completed fifth general, whereas Neilson Powless (EF Training-EasyPost) rounded out the ultimate GC podium 10 seconds behind Vauquelin.
The racing obtained underway early on the ultimate of three levels, with the primary kilometres seeing the riders tackle the Col d’Eze. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) was among the many early attackers together with Paret-Peintre, Hugh Carthy (EF Training-EasyPost), Romain Bardet (Staff DSM), amongst others.
Vauquelin’s Arkéa-Samsic squad labored with Lotto-Dstny to close the transfer down shortly, nevertheless, earlier than Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Jonathan Caicedo (EF Training-EasyPost) shaped the day’s break on the subsequent climb of the Col de Châteauneuf.
Neo-pro Grégoire put in a formidable journey to distance Caicedo and go solo on the entrance earlier than a excessive tempo placed on by Trek-Segafredo and EF noticed him caught a full 40km earlier than the tip of the 132km stage.
At that time, with no main hills left except for the 4.2km, 4.5% Montée de la Sine, it was all about that final ascent earlier than a 6km flat run to the end in Vence.
It was there the place Paret-Peintre determined to make his transfer, getting separation from the GC favourites’ group and soloing to the stage win, even when he fell simply in need of nabbing Vauquelin’s yellow jersey.
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