In his first big races for British team Endura Racing, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is showing the poise and patience of a veteran. The 27-year-old today climbed to a brilliant statement win in the stage two finale of the Tour du Haut Var, taking the stage victory and the overall win in the process.
Julien El Fares (Team Type 1-Sanofil) was second after riding aggressively in the finale, and Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) was third.
The day’s action began to heat up as Bretagne-Schuller was leading the peloton in defense of yellow jersey wearer and yesterday’s stage winner Romain Hardy. The French team was trying to keep in check a breakaway of some 15 riders, though it had placed its own policeman in the break in Dimitri Champion.
On a day that would feature several escape attempts, the duo of Jérôme Cousin (Europcar) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) were the first to give it a go. Georg Preidler (Team Type 1-Sanofil) and Wesley Sulzberger (GreenEdge) gave chase from the break. But Bretagne-Schuller led a hungry peloton and the entirety of the breakaway was soon swallowed up as favourites Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) made their presence felt at the front.
Edet made another brief coup, as his team-mate David Moncoutie struggled with bike problems behind, but Europcar led the chase and finally pulled in the Cofidis rider.
With no break to chase and 30 kilometers still remaining, moves fired off the peloton from all directions, with riders from Ag2R, Europcar, Saur-Sojasun, and FDJ-BigMat all playing cards. With 25 kilometers remaining, a new group of eight was established, this one containing the increased power of Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Guillaume Levarlet (Saur-Sojasun), John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i), Arnaud Gerard and Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ-BigMat), and Pablo Lastras (Movistar).
Despite working well together, this group was also soon caught. Gerrans led an acceleration again with the peloton in sight, which Levarlet and Vaugrenard covered. The trio grabbed 17 seconds over the charging peloton, and Gerrans kept the pressure high as they made a left hand turn onto the lower slopes of the final climb.
But with obvious belief in Voeckler, Europcar soon brought everything together, and their star Frenchman danced off the front as the climb got steeper.
The final climb into Fayence was taken in two steps. An initial climb got steeper as it got higher, but a descent midway through allowed for some recovery, before the final steep ramps into town.
The steepness of the first pitch soon became too much for Voeckler’s early season form, and as he slipped back, Tiernan-Locke made his first appearance at the front. The move turned out to be just a test, and as he looked back, he would see covering moves coming from Movistar, Saur-Sojasun and Team Type 1’s El Fares.
Showing no signs of strain on his face, Tiernan-Locke continued trading little punches with a host of riders, but Saur-Sojasun came to the front as the first climb levelled off and the short descent began.
The flatter run-in to the final climb gave another escape group one final chance at glory. A chasing peloton of around 25 riders began to consolidate, including Gilbert and race leader Hardy. El Fares led a move off the front, taking Thibault Pinot (FDJ-BigMat), Simon Clarke (GreenEdge), and Julien Simon from Saur-Sojasun with him.
This quartet would push a slim lead on the peloton all the way to the final kilometer, and as the climb got steep again, Simon confidently pushed away. El Fares appeared exhausted and Simon’s lead grew.
But with an increasing difficulty reminiscent of the Fleche Wallone’s Mur de Huy, the climb into Fayence forced Simon into the red, and Tiernan-Locke once again appeared out of the hard-charging peloton.
El Fares recovered enough to hang on to Tiernan-Locke as he came by, but it was the British rider who climbed patiently and powerfully, eventually overtaking a fading Simon. Endura Racing’s new star had several seconds on El Fares as he crossed the line, adding two more to his stable of wins taken at the Tour of the Mediterranean.