Under a bright and sunny sky, the second stage of the 44th edition of the Tour du Haut Var took place between Fréjus and Fayence today and even more hillier roads than yesterday. Today, the breakaway didn't manage to stay ahead until the finsih and in the end it was Jonathan Tiernan-Locke who not only won the stage but also his second general classification in only one week, after the Tour Med! Clearly, the young British rider made the good choice to come back to the peloton after having put his cycling career on standby to finish his school ...

The summary of the 2nd stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2012: Fréjus > Fayence

This morning around 11.30AM, the start of the 2nd and last stage of the Tour du Haut Var-Matin 2012 took place on the Place de la Porte d'Hermès in Fréjus.

In the descent of the Côte de Bagnols-en-Forêt, a group of 16 riders formed a breakaway (at km 12), including Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun), Jérémy Roy (FDJ BigMat), Ivan Santaromita (BMC Racing Team), Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale), Dimitri Champion (Bretagne-Schuller), Vincent Jérôme (Team Europcar), Wesley Sulzberger (GreenEDGE), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne), Georg Preidler (Team Type 1-Sanofi), David Lopez Garcia (Movistar Team), ...

In this groupe Georg Preidler arrived first on top of both the Col des Marjories (1st category) and the Col de Mons (hors catégorie). On top of the Col de Mons the 16 riders were still together and their gap on the peloton was 3'20" at that time.

Bit by bit, this group fell apart and only some riders manage to stay ahead of the peloton. At about 50 kilometers from the finish, Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) decides to attack in a final attempt to stay ahead. He quickly gets company from Vincent Jérôme (Team Europcar) while Wesley Sulzberger is chasing behind them, just like Georg Preidler a bit further behind. These two chasing riders get together in the climb of the Côte de Claviers but are finally taken back by the peloton, just like Vincent Jérôme.

Nicolas Edet still stays ahead solo with about 15 seconds lead and, even though he's alone, he first extends his lead but is finally taken back as well at around 30 kilometers from the finish.

From the compact peloton, a new breakaway is formed by Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE), Benoît Vaugrenard and Arnaud Gérard for the FDJ BigMat team, Dimitri Fofonov (Astana), Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar), Guillaume Levarlet and John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i). They get company from Pablo Lastras (Movistar Team).

Still ahead, this group of 8 riders crosses the line first at the sprint Moïse Puginier in Seillans and one of them (unfortunately I don't have the name of the winner for now) who wins this sprint.

The peloton however is not far and after this sprint, Simon Gerrans attacks and seems to get in a solo breakaway. He however gets company from Arnaud Gérard and Guillaume Levarlet.

These three riders start the climb towards Montauroux together, at about 10 kilometers from the finish, still with a gap which is around 20 seconds. The peloton however gets back rather quickly, especially driven by Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) who simply leaves these 3 leading riders behind as if they were not moving but he finally doesn't manage to keep up the speed and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing), the surprise of the Tour Med, naturally takes over the lead of the stage.

Surprisingly easily, Tiernan-Locke stays ahead during the whole climb. In the descent a small group of about 10 riders gets formed at the head of the race, including the rider who wears the yellow jersey, Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) and still with Jonathan Tiernan-Locke.

While several riders get back to this group, the local rider of the stage, Julien El Fares (Team Type 1-Sanofi), together with Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun), Simon Clarke (GreenEDGE) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ BigMat) manage to get away from them and get in a 4 man breakaway at around 5 kilometers from the finish.

These 4 riders are still ahead when they get in the last kilometer where the climb of the Mur de Fayence starts. Julien Simon clearly gets away from the others but behind him Jonathan Tiernan-Locke gets back on his favourite terrain ... He gets back on all the riders behind Julien Simon and in the most difficult parts, Tiernan-Locke gets in the first position in the race and in 5h23'13" the British rider wins this second stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2012!

Julien El Farès finished at the 2nd place behind him while Julien Simon takes the last place at the podium.

With this victory, Tiernan-Locke also takes the final win, his second after the Tour Méditerranéen.

The final classifications of the Tour du Haut Var 2012

Stage classification for the 2nd stage

The top 10 of this stage is as follows:

1/ Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) - 5h23'13"
2/ Julien El Farès (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - +0'01"
3/ Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) - +0'04"
4/ Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun) - +0'11"
5/ Simon Clarke (GreenEDGE) - +0'13"
6/ Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ BigMat) - +0'19"
7/ Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana)
8/ Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale)
9/ Christophe Le Mével ([[Garmin-Barracuda]])
10/ Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller)

General classification

Here's the top 10 of the final general classification of the Tour du Haut Var-Matin 2012:

1/ Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) - 10h10'29"
2/ Julien El Farès (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - +0'06"
3/ Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) - +0'09"
4/ Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) - +0'13"
5/ Simon Clarke (GreenEDGE) - +0'18"
6/ Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun) - +0'20"
7/ Christophe Le Mével ([[Garmin-Barracuda]]) - +0'24"
8/ Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'28"
9/ Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana)
10/ Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ BigMat)

Best young rider

As if it were a consolation, Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) ends up best young rider of the race:

1/ Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) - 10h10'42"
2/ Thibaut Pinot (FDJ BigMat) - +0'21"
3/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) - +0'23"
4/ Cameron Meyer (GreenEDGE) - +0'33"
5/ Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) - +2'16"

Classification by points

In addition to the 2nd stage and the general classification, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) also wins the points classification:

1/ Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) - 41 points
2/ Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) - 31 points
3/ Julien El Farès (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - 25 points
4/ Simon Clarke (GreenEDGE) - 24 points
5/ Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) - 23 points

King of the Mountains classification

By getting first on top of the first two mountains, Georg Preidler (Team Type 1-Sanofi) wins the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Georg Preidler (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - 33 points
2/ Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar) - 20 points
3/ Clément Koretzky (La Pomme Marseille) - 18 points
4/ Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun) - 14 points
5/ Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - 10 points

source background illustration image of this article: Parfait amour, © all other photos: velowire.com / Thomas Vergouwen

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour du Haut Var

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