Pierre Latour beats the world champion

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Pierre-Roger Latour is the seventeenth winner of the junior edition of the Classique des Alpes. The 18 year-old from the Rhône-Alpes region claimed a solo victory at the Cirque de Saint-Même in the Chartreuse area, as he survived a crash on the downhill of the col de Cucheron. Most of the riders going for the win crashed pretty much at the same place with 4km to go. That included reigning world champion Olivier Le Gac from Brittany who was chasing the two leaders, Latour and Adrien Legros from Paris.

"Adrien crashed 10 meters ahead of me and I went down as well," Latour told Cyclingnews. "I re-started ten seconds before him and I kept increasing my lead till the finish. I'm very happy to win this race. Already one year ago, it was a major goal for me and I finished fourth. Because of that, I was marked quite a lot today but I wanted to win badly. This was my main objective this year with the French championship."

Five riders from every region of France contested the Classique des Alpes that is now the third leg of the national challenge for juniors. Le Gac was also marked a lot, as he is at all the race he does with the rainbow stripes on his back since he won the world's title in Offida, Italy, last year, ahead of Australia's Jay McCarthy. By finishing fifth, he increased his lead in the national challenge significantly. He now precedes by 28 points Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier who came third at the Classique des Alpes, so he's got a high chance to win the overall ranking as there's only one race left.

Le Gac is having a great season but there's more to come for him. Following his school exams in the next two weeks, he'll take part in the French championships for track racing, the international GP Patton in Luxemburg and the European championships (14-17 July) to be held in Offida at the same place he became the world champion in his first year of cycling in 2010.