This afternoon the opening race of the European and French cycling season 2013, the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise, took place in the region around Marseille.

The first part of the race was marked by a breakaway with Thomas Vaubourzeix and Jelle Wallays and at the end of the race a solo breakaway by Sander Armée almost managed to go on to victory. Taken back at the last minute, the Belgian rider saw the race victory being decided in a bunch sprint, won by Justin Jules at only a few centimeters from Samuel Dumoulin, the winner of this race in 2012.

The summary of the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise 2013

142 riders came to sign in at the start of the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise 2013 this morning under a timid sun in front of the offices of the Conseil Régional in Marseille (see the photos at the start).

At 12.02PM the race started with a gunshot, for 148 kilometers towards the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, via the Petit Galibier, Col de l'Espigoulier, the climb towards Julhan les Bastides and the Col de la Gineste.

After a first attempt by Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille) and Niels Wytinck (An Post-Chainreaction), the breakaway of the day was formed after around fifteen kilometers with Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise). After about fourty kilometers in the race their gap reached its maximum, at a value of around 7 and a half minutes.

On top of the first climb counting for the "Grand Prix la Marseillaise", the King of the Mountains classification, the Petit Galibier, Wallays got in front of Vaubourzeix right on top and thus took the points while this climb made the peloton fall apart in two groups.

On the next summit, the Col de l'Espigoulier, the order in which they passed was the same and at about 2 minutes behind the leading duo, Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale) was the first rider of the peloton. The last climb counting for the KOM classification also saw the leading duo pass in the same order and at the end of the race Jelle Wallays was thus logically the winner of this classification.

The peloton than approached dangerously and Cédric Pineau (FDJ) and Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille) were the first to join the leading duo. Giraud in some way took over from his team mate Vaubourzeix because the last mentioned decided to let the 3 other leading riders go.

When Sander Armée (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) attacked from the peloton in the climb of the Col de la Gineste, the leading trio slowly got back in the peloton and the Belgian rider thus went off alone towards the finish. His gap was only 20 seconds however and this finally turned out not to be enough to win the race. In the last kilometer the first peloton came back on him and the race victory was thus decided in a bunch sprint among the riders of this peloton.

In this sprint Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) finally turned out to be the winner, beating last year's winner, Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale), with only a few centimeters.

The reaction from Samuel Dumoulin at the finish

The number two of the race, who thus didn't succeed in reproducing his exploit of last year didn't really show any deception at the finish. Samuel Dumoulin told me he is in good shape at the start of this season, the result of hard work during the winter.
I thus had good legs today and the team helped me a lot. As the race's favourite everyone was watching me though. At the finish, I was a bit blocked on the right side of the road and I had to zig-zag for the sprint. That's probably where I lost these centimeters I needed at the finish.
The Coupe de France is not necessarily my big goal this year but I participate in several of these races and with this second place I took the first points so that's a good start anyway.

The classification of the Grand Prix La Marseillaise 2013

Here's the top 10 of this race:

1/ Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) - 3h40'05"
2/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale)
3/ Thomas Damuseau (Argos-Shimano)
4/ Anthony Roux (FDJ)
5/ Sander Armée (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise)
6/ Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale)
7/ Maxime Vantomme (Crelan-Euphony)
8/ Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano)
9/ Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
10/ Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise)

The photos of the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise 2013

>> Click here to find 94 photos of the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise 2013

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise | Coupe de France

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