Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) launched a timely attack under the flamme rouge to win the second stage of the Tour du Haut Var and also took the overall. The others closed in on Le Mevel in the steepest part towards the end, but the Frenchman saved himself to the finish line, ahead of Pierrick Fédrigo and Bert de Waele. De Waele was tied on time in the overall, but lost to Le Mevel on placings in both stages.
Fédrigo launched a dangerous move inside the 30km mark, but was caught by the peloton with one kilometer remaining. Le Mevel jumped and immediately had a good gap. The yellow jersey of Rinaldo Nocentini, who had only a two-second cushion, was nowhere to be seen.
Le Mevel started to get tired in the final switchbacks of the picturesque town of Montauroux. Fédrigo and De Waele were right on his wheel, but taking the last left hand bend on the inside, Le Mevel was able to cross the line in first place.
Attackers to the front
A group with Rémy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux), David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) and Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) tried its luck early in the race.
They still managed to climb over the mur de Montauroux ahead of the bunch, with 44 km left to race. AG2R controlled the peloton for race leader Rinaldo Nocentini.
Once Romain Sicard and Jerome Coppel caught the front group, however, it was a sign that the peloton was close.
Once caught a new break formed and Pierrick Fédrigo tried a solo. He was caught however and in the final kilometers it was Pierre Rolland, Laurent Didier and yesterday’s late attacker, Jerome Coppel, to give it a go.
Everything came back together just before the final kilometer, where Le Mevel attacked.
Results stage 2
1. Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux)
2. Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)
3. Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago)
Final general Classification
1. Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux)
2. Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago)