Vichot wins Tour du Haut Var

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Lars Boom continued his and Blanco Pro Cycling’s fine start to the 2013 season by taking victory on stage 2 of the Tour du Haut Var, while Arthur Vichot (FDJ) claimed final overall victory in an exciting climax to the weekend’s racing.

Initially part of a 15-man group that went up the road midway through the stage, Boom sparked the decisive move when he jumped clear with Daniel Oss (BMC) with 60km still to race. That duo was joined shortly afterwards by Amael Moinard (BMC), Laurens ten Dam (Blanco), Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne – Séché) and Guillaume Bonnafond (Ag2r-La Mondiale), and they built up a maximum lead of 3:30 over the peloton.

That gap was sliced to around a minute on the approach to the final climb of the day, the Côte de Tuilières, and in the closing kilometres, the peloton was on the point of sweeping up the escapees.

Two kilometres from the finish, Boom summoned up the strength to attack once again, bringing Oss, Fédrigo and Ten Dam with him, as well as the alert Arthur Vichot, who made it across from the main peloton.

The quintet duly built up a lead of 14 seconds which they held to the finish, and while Boom pipped Vichot in the sprint for stage honours, the Frenchman had done enough to take the yellow jersey from Thor Hushovd (BMC), who won the bunch sprint for 6th.