Tour des Alpes-Maritimes: Christian Scaroni outsprints Santiago Buitrago on mountaintop finish to win stage 1

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Cristian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) racked up his second win in two days to claim victory on the opening day of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, the Italian triumphing from a lead group against two Bahrain Victorious riders on the summit finish of Gourdon.

He beat Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) after jumping from the wheel of another Bahrain man, Lenny Martinez, 100 metres from the finish on the steep finishing slopes at the end of the 162km day.

Scaroni’s win continues his highly successful start to the 2025 season, which has seen him take podium finishes at the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana, the Trofeo Calvià, and the Vuelta a Murcia, as well as score victory at Friday’s Classic Var.

Scaroni, Buitrago, and Martinez had led the way for the final 5.5km of the finishing climb on a day which brought 3,500 metres of climbing, with the Frenchman pushing the pace on the front to distance a strong chasing group.

Bahrain looked to set up the closing sprint for Buitrago, but Scaroni – clearly in some of the best form of his career – had too much for the Colombian and shot to the win.

“Yesterday was really hard and today was harder because everybody waited for us,” Scaroni said after the stage.

“EF tried to make a really hard race from the start. Battistella, my teammate, said that he was suffering on the long climb with the hard pace.

“I’m in good shape on the last climb. Bahrain tried to attack a lot of times but in the end, I won the sprint with Buitrago.

“Tomorrow we’ll try to keep the jersey. I’m really happy for the team and we’ll see tomorrow. It will be another day.”

Scaroni now holds the overall race lead heading into a gentler concluding stage to Vence on Sunday. He enjoys a four-second lead on Buitrago while Martinez lies in third at 10 seconds. Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) and Jarno Widar (Lotto) are in fourth and fifth places at 57 seconds.

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the two-part Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var would see the riders tackle a mountainous 162km course between Contes and Gourdon. The first-category climbs of the Col Saint-Roch and Col de Châteauneuf, as well as two ascents of the second-category Gourdon, lay along the route.

Attacks flew from the start of the stage, but it wasn’t until the riders hit the Col Saint-Roch that a breakaway got away. On the way up the 11km climb, Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto) was joined in a seven-man move by Edoardo Zamperini (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Sergio Meris (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Morné Van Niekerk (Van Rysel-Roubaix), and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 pair Dillon Corkery and Kenny Molly.

As the break jumped clear up the road, EF Education-EasyPost were among the teams who settled in to control the peloton on behalf of their leader Richard Carapaz. The men in pink limited the break’s advantage to 1:30.

Corkery was the first man to drop from the breakaway, letting go on the 6.7km climb of the Col de Châteauneuf as the peloton closed to within a minute of the leaders. They wouldn’t make the catch so early, however, instead letting the six remaining riders build their lead back up to the 1:30 mark.

As the final 40km – and the first climb up Gourdon (17.7km at 3.8%) – began, though, the breakaway was quickly dragged back. By the 35km mark, it was over for the sextet, with EF bringing it all back together at the head of the race.

The group went over the top of the climb all together, and it would take until the end of the descent, 18km from the finish, for the first major attack to come. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) made the move, going clear on the downhill and pulling out a small gap before the start of the final ascent (13.9km at 3.9%).

On the way back uphill, Vendrame pushed on to open up a 20-second gap. He hit the final 10km holding that advantage with EF massed on the front of the slimmed-down peloton in pursuit.

Vendrame’s lead wouldn’t last to the top, however. EF dragged him back by the 8km mark, setting up a grand finale among the top climbers of the race. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) would be the man to launch that finale, going clear at 6.5km to go.

With the peloton at that point totally blown apart, the Colombian was chased by groups of riders in ones and twos. His teammate Lenny Martinez was in the second group along with Cristian Scaroni (XDS-Astana), while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) dropped a little further back to chase alone.

With Martinez and Scaroni catching Buitrago at 5.5km to go, the Bahrain duo had the numbers to work against the Classic Var winner. Martinez briefly tried a move, though the trio settled in to work together and distance those chasing behind.

That strong chase group included Carapaz, Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), Jarno Widar (Lotto), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), Joseph Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech).

Martinez led the way into the final 4km, with the leading trio enjoying a 40-second lead on the chasers heading towards the finish. The Frenchman stuck on the front deep into the final kilometre, setting up a Buitrago vs Scaroni sprint finish.

Scaroni launched from second wheel heading into the steep final 100 metres, taking Buitrago with him as the pair shot past Martinez to the line. But despite Bahrain having the numerical advantage, it was Scaroni who had the legs to come through and win.

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