Tour du Var: Brambilla secures stage 3 and overall victory

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Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) won the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var with victory on the final stage that also allowed him to depose Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) of the leader's yellow jersey during a dramatic final stage. 

Brambilla was part of a large group driven by Groupama-FDJ that broke clear at the start of the stage featuring several threats to GC including Groupama-FDJ teammates Rudy Molard and Valentin Madouas. Brambilla was a threat too and ultimately dropped all his rivals in the attack, soloing to the finish to seal overall victory.  

Woods gave a spirited defence of his jersey, ultimately coming to within just a few seconds of saving his lead, but came up short by just five seconds. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) finished third overall at six seconds back.

After breaking clear from the rest of the breakaway group with Madouas on the Col de la Madone, Brambilla made his final race-winning attack 11km from the finish, when he accelerated and dropped the Groupama-FDJ rider on a late uphill section. From that point to the finish, the Italian was able to solo all the way to the finish.

Behind Brambilla, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) chased hard in the break and won the sprint for second in a small group at 13 seconds featuring the Groupama-FDJ duo of Madouas and Molard, all of whom had been a part of the day’s break. 

Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) joined them in the final stages after attacking out of the peloton, which was massively diminished in size after the Col de la Madone.

Woods and the remainder of that peloton arrived another five seconds later, which wasn’t quite enough to hold the yellow jersey. Nonetheless, it was a laudable effort from the Canadian, who came close to almost single-handedly bringing back the breakaway despite receiving next to no support from the other riders in the closing stages, most of whom made the tactical decision of sitting on his wheel due to having teammates up the road in the break. 

“It was a really hard and tough day,” said an exhausted but delighted Brambilla at the finish. “I managed to be in the first break. I was marked, but I played my cards well. Groupama did most of the job, they were really really strong.

“I’ve lived here in Monaco for almost four years, and I know very well all the roads here,” Brambilla added to reveal the secret to his victory.

Amid all the action and confusion of the finale, it also transpired that Brambilla was oblivious of what exactly was going on due to a problem with his radio. 

“I had a problem with the radio, I was without a radio and didn’t know anything in the final. [Trek-Segafredo Director Sportif] Gregory Rast came with a car, and he told me: ‘You have to give everything, you have to drop everyone if you want to go for the stage and for the GC.’ I was thinking about the stage, not the GC. But everything came.”

How it unfolded

The third and final stage of the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var might have been the shortest day of the race, but it was also the toughest. The riders took in three Alpine summits and several more uncategorised climbs during the stage that started and finished in the town of Blausasc.

The parcours promised plenty of action, and indeed that was the case, as a very strong breakaway group went up the road at the start of the day, featuring some star names and threats to GC.

Brambilla, Molard, Madouas and Simon Clarke (Qhubeka Assos) were the highest placed riders on GC at just 13 seconds adrift of Woods, while also eyeing a large jump up the classification was Julian El Fares (EF Education-Nippo) at 24 seconds, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) at 26 seconds, and Alexis Vuillermoz (Total Direct Energie) at 29 seconds. 

The rest of the group was completed by: Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Julian Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates), Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Fenix), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Martijn Tusveld (Team DSM), Fabio Felline, Hugo Houle, Gorka Izagirre (all Astana-Premier Tech), Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) and Nans Peters (AG2R Citroën Team).

With three riders in the group and Molard the virtual leader, Groupama-FDJ pressed on and opened a large gap over the peloton that grew up to almost three minutes with 50km to go. 

The pace was also enough to reduce the lead group to just 11 riders, featuring the three Groupama-FDJ riders, Geoghegan Hart, Vuillermoz, Brambilla, Houle, Izagirre, Tusveld, Perez and Janssens.

Back in the peloton, Israel Start-Up Nation were chasing desperately to protect Michael Wood’s vulnerable overall lead, and began to make some inroads as the crucial final climb of the Col de la Madone approached. By the foot of the Col de la Madone the gap was close to 2:30. The race was on a knife edge.

Groupama’s Armirail continued to lead the breakaway on the Madone, gradually whittling it down until just his teammates, Geoghegan Hart, Brambilla and Izagirre remained. He even neutralised a couple of tentative accelerations from Geoghegan Hart. Behind Krists Neilands and then Dan Martin set a ferocious pace for Israel Start-Up Nation, bringing the peloton back to within two minutes as Woods rode impressively on the climb. 

Armirail eventually finished his turn at 28km, four kilometres from the summit of the Madone, prompting Madouas to attack, joined by Brambilla. The pair worked together to keep a chasing Geoghegan Hart at bay, and crested the climb with a lead of 25 seconds.

Several attacks from the likes of Simon Carr (EF Education-Nippo) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) were launched from the peloton but eventually it was Woods in the yellow jersey that went alone, reaching the top of the climb 53 seconds behind the leaders.

Woods was left in a difficult position, however, when Fuglsang, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) all caught back up to him. With teammates still up the road, neither rider had any incentive to work, with Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) also declining to take a turn. Woods was left with no support, meaning the gap to the leaders extended back to over one minute.

Woods refused to give up though, and was remarkably strong given all the time he had his nose to the wind, but didn’t quite have the legs and was forced to settle for second overall instead at the finish.

Brambilla made his decisive move 11.3km from the finish, when he launched a powerful acceleration to drop Madouas. 

After later suffering a crash on a descent, Madouas dropped back to teammate Molard and Geoghegan Hart, plus O’Connor, who had attacked from the peloton. But though working together they were able to just about hold off the chasing peloton, they were unable to bring back Brambilla, who took both stage and overall victory.