Roche claims Route du Sud victory

Movistar’s Adriano Malori won the third and final stage of the Route du Sud on the streets of Castres on Sunday. He won the 179.4km race after a late-race attack and had five seconds to spare at the finish line ahead of Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille) and Maxime Daniel (Ag2r La Mondiale).

"I'm so happy because this is the very first time I’ve won a road race as a pro cyclist - all my previous wins were time trials or GCs,” Malori said. “I was convinced I could make it but I'm not really fast and in modern cycling, that makes your chances shrink a lot."

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicolas Roche won the overall title by 45 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) and an additional four seconds to his own teammate Michael Rogers. The Irishman moved into the overall race lead after winning the previous day’s second stage in Val Louron.

"It was a magnificent feeling crossing the finish line taking my very first GC win after three days of very hard racing. It was enjoyable experiencing my teammates so dedicated and determined to support me and of course, this is their victory as well. Surely, this was a confidence booster before taking on the Tour de France in a couple of weeks so obviously, I'm looking forward to it," Roche said.

Malori made his winning move with 20km from the finish and was followed by Josh Edmondson (Team Sky). The pair bridged up to one of the last remaining riders from an original all day breakaway, Yukiya Arashiro (Team Eurpcar). With all three together and 45 seconds ahead of the bunch, FDJ.fr started to push the pace to bring the group back. Malori attacked with two kilometers from the finish and soloed across the line to take the stage win.

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