Huge result for Endura Racing team
Having already stunned the peloton with his stage one win in the Tour of the Mediterranean, Jon Tiernan Locke pulled off an even bigger coup today when he soloed to victory on the final day and took the overall classification.
The British Team Endura rider attacked on the run-in to the day’s final climb, the Col des Gardes, which replaced the snowed-out Mont Faron as the climax to the four day race. He raced alone to the summit, reaching the line ahead of Daniel Navarro (Saxo Bank), Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) and Angel Mardrazo (Movistar), and leaping back into the yellow leader’s jersey.
Navarro’s directeur sportif Philippe Mauduit explained that the Saxo Bank riders had tried to set things up for their rider. “The whole team did an outstanding job for Dani (Navarro) and we almost had a full team at the bottom of the climb to protect him when Jonathan (Tiernan-Locke) launched his attack,” he said.
“Four riders were trying to follow but they were caught and Dani launched a severe counter-attack but didn’t bridge the gap to the guy in front. But it was a great finish by the whole team. We didn’t take the victory but we showed that we have several riders who are able to compete for the win.”
Tiernan Locke’s ability to hold off that chase underlines his superb form. He had started the day third overall, ten seconds behind stage two and three winner Michel Kreder of the Garmin-Barracuda team. He’s the first-ever winner of the Tour of the Mediterranean, and shows that the Endura team fully deserves the wildcard it was given to take part.
Last year he took the King of the Mountains classification in the Tour of Britain, and has clearly worked hard since.
The stage was initially scheduled to be contested over 140 kilometres, starting in La Ciotat and ending atop the famous Mont Faron, the big early-season indicator of those in climbing form. However both those points had to be scratched from the parcours due to snow and freezing weather.
Johan Le Bon (Bretagne Schuller) sought to take advantage of the reduced distance by attacking solo, but he was brought back inside the final ten kilometres. Tiernan-Locke then seized his chance and pulled off the biggest win of his career.
(more to follow)