Tour du Var: Mollema wins stage 1

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Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) won the opening stage of the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, triumphing on the summit finish in Gourdon to take the first yellow leader's jersey of the three-day race.

The Dutchman beat Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) to the line by two seconds after 188 kilometres of racing which took in three ascents of the finishing climb, while Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) finished third.

Mollema, racing his tenth day of 2021 so far, kept his powder dry as attacks flew on the final climb of the day. He waited to jump away from the peloton as the road kicked up to six per cent in the final 200 metres of the 14-kilometre closing climb, sealing the 15th win of his 14-year career.

A 25-man group rolled in, a single second down on Van Avermaet and Madouas, with Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) leading the way in a group containing teammate Dan Martin, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), among others. Those GC riders will be tempted by the tougher climbs of Sunday's stage 3 in Blusasc, which includes three first-category climbs.

How it unfolded

The French stage racing season continued at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var on Friday morning, as a class field of riders set off from the hilltop village of Biot north of Cannes to kick off the 186.8-kilometre opening stage to the village of Gourdon, nestled in the Préalpes d'Azur national park. 

The stage looked arguably the toughest of the three-day race, featuring three second-category ascents of the 14-kilometre, 3.9 per cent climb to Gourdon, including the finisher. Two kilometres of seven per cent in the middle of the climb, plus a final kilometre at six per cent, looked best suited to attacks for the win and first yellow jersey of the race. 

Attacks flew from the very start of the stage, with Otto Vergaerde (Alpecin-Fenix) and Tom Wirtgen (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) the first riders to escape the peloton. The two lowlanders were quickly joined out front by Flavien Maurelet (St Michel-Auber 93) and Óscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH), with Jérémy Leveau (Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Métropole) chasing further back. 

The quartet were joined by Leveau as they passed through the intermediate sprint at 30 kilometres six minutes up on the peloton, who were happy to let them go. Ineos Grenadiers, who are led at the race by Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart, were in charge at the front of the peloton with Total Direct Énergie and Trek-Segafredo also towards the front. Wirtgen, who led the way across the first intermediate sprint, did the same at the second, which came after 67 kilometres. 

Their advantage had eroded by that point, though, edging under three minutes as the riders passed the 100 kilometres to go mark. By the time the quintet reached the base of the first ascent of Gourdon – with little else happening in the interim – they had just two minutes on the peloton behind. Despite the upping of pace behind, there was no danger of the break being caught so early, and Vergaerde led the break over the day's first climb still two minutes up. Andrea Mifsud (Swiss Cycling Academy) struck out alone on the climb, but struggled to make much headway, hanging 30 seconds ahead of the peloton. 

Further back, Ineos Grenadiers continued to control the peloton, with Dylan Van Baarle and Rohan Dennis among the riders on the front. The break wouldn't make it to the final ascent of Gourdon, with Vergaerde the last man standing, just a kilometre from the top of the day's second climb with 27 kilometres remaining. 

At that point, the peloton was still sizeable and still led by Ineos, though AG2R Citroën's Oliver Naesen tried his luck with an attack on the descent. Behind him, the peloton split as they headed down into the valley, though Trek-Segafredo took charge of proceedings at the base of the final ascent. The situation briefly calmed, before Groupama-FDJ moved to the front and the attacking started. Their man Madouas led an attack which included Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), though as they passed five kilometres to go, only Pacher remained. 

The Frenchman kept pushing on but was reeled in by Groupama-FDJ with three kilometres left to race, at which point the French squad kept pushing on at the front along with Trek-Segafredo. The race would be decided then, by the burst to the line which angled up to a still modest six per cent gradient. In the end, it was Mollema who proved the top puncheur in those closing metres, getting the jump on Van Avermaet to deny the Belgian a victory on his sixth race day with his new team.