Moncoutie wins on Mont Faron

David Moncoutié (Cofidis) conquered the summit of Mont Faron for the third time in his career to grab the final stage and overall victory in the Tour Méditerranéen. The Frenchman reeled in his fellow countryman Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) in the closing kilometre to seal a stylish win.

After an initial 17-man breakaway was shut down 70km into the stage, Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) and Arkimedes Arguelys (Katusha) were the next to try their luck, but the duo were never likely to survive as far as the final haul up Mont Faron. They were eventually swallowed up by the bunch 15km from the finish and, as expected, the outcome of both the stage and general classification were decided on the 5.5km climb above Toulon.

Yellow jersey Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) was never likely to hold on to his advantage on the 9.9% slopes and he would ultimately lose 2 minutes and slip to 25th overall by the day’s end as the peloton fragmented on the climb.

The first attack of consequence came from Péraud, who launched a fearsome acceleration 4km from the summit. He initially had Julien Antomarchi (La Pomme Marseille) and Steve Cummings (Sky) for company although when he kicked again a kilometre later, he looked set for glory.

Moncoutié’s Mont Faron experience was to prove telling in a dramatic finale, however, as he intelligently timed his effort. He pressed clear of a ten-man chasing group in the final two kilometres and went on to catch and pass Péraud 350 metres from the line. He came home 7 seconds clear of the AG2R man and 18 ahead of Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Cervélo). Other pre-stage favourites Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Dan Martin (Garmin-Cervélo) could only manage 12th and 36th, respectively.

Moncoutié previously won on the climb in 2003 and 2009, but this time his effort was also enough to snatch overall victory, 11 seconds ahead of Péraud and a further 13 clear of Poels.