Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes: Cristián Rodríguez wins ultra-mountainous race from 48 kilometre solo break

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Spaniard takes biggest victory of career with spectacular lone long-distance move

Cristián Rodríguez
Cristián Rodríguez (Image credit: Getty Images)
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An epic 48-kilometre solo breakaway has seen Spain's Cristián Rodríguez clinch the biggest European victory of his career at the Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes one-day race.

The Arkéa - B&BHotels rider and former Tour of Rwanda winner took off his closest pursuers a few kilometres from the top of the hardest ascent of the day, the Hors Categorie Col de la Couillole and stayed away alone all the way to the finish at the summit of the Cat.1 Valberg.

Second on a day of 4,320 metres of vertical climbing was Kern Pharma's José Félix Parra, with Parra's teammate Ivan Sosa in third.

The ride of the day, though, was by Rodríguez, whose two-minute advantage at the foot of the Valberg barely diminished to a still notable margin of 1:42 on Parra by the top of the 14.4 kilometre ascent.

Thanks to his victory, the 30-year-old Spaniard joined climbers of the calibre of Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) in the palmares of the Meran'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes, one of France's toughest one-day climbing races. He has also likely considerably upped his chances, too, of a spot in the Arkéa line-up for the upcoming Tour de France.

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Alasdair Fotheringham
Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent,  The Guardian,  ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.

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