Jonathan Hivert wins Stage 1 of the Tour du Haut Var 2018
Jonathan Hivert takes the stage one victory and leaders jersey at the Tour du Haut Var 2018. The Frenchman succeed on the road to Fayence beating compatriots Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2R La Mondiale) and Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2R).
On Stage 1 of the Tour du Haut Var 2018, the peloton covered 170 kilometers from Le Cannet des Maures to the village of Fayence. Unlike in Paris-Nice or on the arrival of the 2012 edition of the race (won by Jonathan Tiernan-Locke), the climb to Fayence for this stage was not via the famous Mur de Fayence but the main road which offers an average gradient of 5% over 1.8 kilometres.
A four-man breakaway comprised of Paul Ourselin (Direct Energy), Franklin Six (WB-Aqua Protect-Veranclassic), Fernando Barcelo (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) and Omer Goldshtein (Israel Cycling Academy) formed early on in the race. However, the quartet never managed to create much space between themselves and the peloton, at its most, the gap reached three minutes.
At fifty kilometers from the finish line, we saw attacks from Hugo Houle and Rudy Molard, who managed to bridge the short gap to the race leaders. But these attacks were short-lived; the riders were caught one by one by the peloton. Molard, Jauregui, and Raggio were the last to be reeled-in, with twenty kilometers of racing remaining.
In the final kilometres we saw several attacks form ahead of the climb to Fayence but none succeeded, a compact peloton started the final climb all together. Although teammates Alexis Vuillermoz and Samuel Dumoulin worked well together on the climb, in the end, it was Direct Energie’s Jonathan Hivert who couldn’t be caught.
Stage 1 Results Tour du Haut Var 2018
- Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie)
- Nicola Bagioli (Nippo Vini Fantini)
- Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r La Mondiale)
- Quentin Pacher (Vital Concept)
- Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r La Mondiale)
- Marco Canola (Nippo Vini Fantini)
- Rudy Molard (FDJ)
- Andriy Grivko (Astana Pro Team)
- Matteo Busato (Wilier Triestina – Selle Italia)
- Dorian Godon (Cofidis)