Christian Scaroni (Astana-XDS) picked up his team’s first victory of the season and his own third professional win at the Classic Var.
The Italian was at the front of a thinned-down group on the final corner of the punishingly steep Mur de Fayence, and powered away to beat the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale duo of Paul Lapeira and Victory Lafay.
The day’s breakaway was only caught with 1.3km to go, leading to a nervy final on the lower slopes of the Mur de Fayence, but after a spirited final dig the serious climbers came to the fore and ultimately a group of five contested the sprint.
Kévin Vauqelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were fourth and fifth across the line, while defending champion Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious) was seventh, eight seconds off the winning group.
“It was really hard,” Scaroni said. “We caught the breakaway [with] 1k to finish, [Nicola] Conci did incredible work for me. I waited to attack Lafay and then the last 200 I gave everything.
Scaroni had recorded three podium finishes already this season but hadn’t recorded a win since June 2022, at the Adriatica Ionica Race.
“I think I deserve it, because I [finished on the podium], the victory [did] not arrive, but today it arrived. I’m really happy for the first victory of the team.”
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How it Unfolded
Only the second edition of the Classic Var, today’s parcours was more consistently up-and-down than the inaugural race but considerably shorter – 164km from Le Luc to Fayence, compared to last year’s 184.3km to Mont Faron.
This year’s route featured three categorised climbs, the cat 3 Col de la Grange (8 km à 4.6%) and Gorges du Blavet (2.4 km à 5%), and a short, steep cat 2 summit finish at Fayence (1.2 km à 9.6%). The race final promised the toughest section of the entire day: a precipitously steep final 600m, with highs of 14%, on the aptly-named Mur de Fayence.
Five riders attacked from the flag drop, with plenty of French representation in the day’s breakaway. Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto) was joined by Célestin Guillon (Van Rysel Roubaix), Maël Guégan (CIC - U - Nantes), and two Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur riders, Damien Girard and Finnish national champion Jaakko Hänninen.
The quintet built up a four-minute advantage but after 100km of racing that was down to under a minute, as the WorldTour teams in action – particularly Bahrain Victorious and EF Education-EasyPost – drove the chase on.
Veistroffer hoovered up the full tally of points available at the two intermediate sprints, and was first over the day’s first two climbs. The gap swung out again, hovering around 1:30 as the breakaway rotated well, but the peloton seemed to have the situation well under control as they rolled through the Provençal countryside.
As the kilometres ticked by the advantage steadily dropped, but after all Bahrain Victorious' hard work they were in danger of being swamped. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale were the best-positioned squad going into the tricky final 3km, and the gently rolling nature of the parcours meant a huge group came together to the foot of the Mur de Fayence.
The Mur signalled the death knell for the breakaway and they were absorbed with just 1.3km to go as the riders swung onto the climb – although not before Girard put in one final dig. As the slopes pitched upward a group of five forced the gap, and Scaroni, who pointed to the sky as he crossed the line, proved a class above his companions.
