Tiernan-Locke wins Tour Méditerranéen

Jon Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) stormed up the Col de Garde in a solo effort on a weather-shortened closing stage to win both the final stage and overall title at the Tour Méditerranéen. Daniel Navarro (Saxo Bank) was second on the day, 17 seconds back, with Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) third in the same time.

Tiernan-Locke  claimed overall victory after starting the stage in third place on general classification, ten seconds down on Garmin-Barracuda's Michel Kreder, who had won the second and third stages.

Tiernan-Locke thus won both the opening and closing stages of the race. It was the first overall title in his career, which has so far been spent on British Continental-ranked teams.

Kreder lost the leader's jersey which he had taken on Saturday, but he still won the best young rider classification and finished second overall. The team brought him to the foot of the final climb, "and I had Daniel Martin and Christophe Le Mevel still with me to give me further help. Tiernan-Locke went at the foot right away and nobody could catch him. He had now clearly the best legs. I finally finished in a group behind Navarro and Garzelli. "

Once again, the winter weather was the real winner in this race, as there was debate as to whether the stage should even be held. Heavy snowfall shut down roads on Mont Faron, the planned finish. The stage was then reduced to only 77km, with the finish atop the Col de Garde.

There were numerous attacks from the beginning of the stage, and Johan Le Bon (Bretagne-Schuler) jumped out in a solo attack about 5km into the day.  He stayed in the lead much of the way, but was caught with less than 10km to go.

Tiernan-Locke attacked on the final climb, winning by 17 seconds. He took off as the climb started, and no one was able to catch him.