Emanuele Sella was once known as the crown prince of the Italian mountains, this week however the little Italian would temporarily take up the mantel of my rival.

On the first climb of the day is when it happened. Feeling that my legs where good and the pace in the peloton not too high, I accelerated out of the pack. Initially followed by a man from Bardiani and another from Giant, both easily dropped though as I kicked a bit quicker on my pedals.

It was this acceleration which caused Sella to place his Androni-Giocattoli team at the head of the peloton in an attempt to reel me back in. My so called “attack� was actually placed in attempt to test my legs, but to spite the little Italian I decided to make the mountains jersey my goal for this week. I took the points on the first climb just before the Italians reeled me back in.


The fun was not for long though as Fabian was not pleased with the idea of spending his first day back in the peloton racing up insignificant mountains at 180bpm. After a little chat between him and Sella the plan was cooked up for me and Sella to simply sprint each other for the points on the second climb.

An agreement that seemed foolproof, but for a certain Tom Derneis from Wallonie-Bruxelles who jumped out of the peloton to take the points on the second climb. Leaving me to outsprint a frustrated Sella for second place, in the process securing myself of the mountains jersey for the next two days.

After a punishing second half of the race in which echelons were formed in an epic chase of late escapee Timmer who wasn’t caught until the final 300m. It was Leigh Howard who took the flowers ahead of his teammate Daryl Impey.

1	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEDGE	3h21'20
2	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEDGE	s.t.
3	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
4	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	s.t.
5	Yannick Martinez	Team Europcar	s.t.

1	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	24
2	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	16
3	Carlos José Ochoa	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	10
4	Tom Dernies	Wallonie - Bruxelles	10
5	Stijn Devolder	Team Tissot	8

The time trial to Mt Saint-Clair was simply a recon ride for Fabian, which I got to enjoy while riding in the red mountain jersey. Still not completely comfortable on the time trial bike my ride was far from perfect. Though looking at the final results of the day I did not do all that bad.


I finished just over 2 minutes behind the eventual winner Bradley Wiggins, who beat out Fabian by 0.30 seconds. (One would think that having Tissot as our sponsor would make these kind of situations turn out in our favour.) Both riders showed early season form though as they beat out third ranked Talansky by almost a minute.

1	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	33'00
2	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	s.t.
3	Andrew Talansky	Garmin - Sharp	+ 55
4	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
5	Ion Izagirre	Movistar Team	+ 1'04

1	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	3h54'14
2	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 6
3	Andrew Talansky	Garmin - Sharp	+ 57
4	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 59
5	Ion Izagirre	Movistar Team	+ 1'10
6	Maxime Monfort	Lotto - Belisol	+ 1'15
7	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEDGE	+ 1'17
8	Rory Sutherland	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'29
9	Blel Kadri	Ag2r - La Mondiale	+ 1'32
10	Gorka Izagirre	Movistar Team	+ 1'35
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43	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 2'21

With four rated climbs in the second half of the stage our directeur sportif was simple in his gameplan today. Catch the early breakaway before the first climb and have me win as many points as possible for the mountain classification. We were getting serious about this jersey. (A jersey normally worn by some guy who likes to hopelessly attack and be rewarded with some silly jersey. Luckily I made the darned thing look good.)


The plan worked to perfection as thanks to great work by Rast, Popovych and Hondo the breakaway was caught right on cue. And my job was made much easier thanks to Stijn Devolder who upped the pace on the slopes of the first climb, causing the peloton to get stretched out over a cord, with Sella nowhere to be seen.

With this realization I accelerated out of the pack, the unfortunately lucky host of two guests in my wheel. Trofimov and Vansummeren. Two big names who would make my job much harder! Proven by the Russian Trofimov as he outsprinted me for the points on the first climb.

As our lead had grown to 20 seconds by the time we started the second climb (which was almost identical to the first yet somehow wasn’t rated.) It were Sella and his Androni men who opened up the chase. Cue for Vansummeren and Trofimov to show their shrewdness as the duo planted themselves in my wheel unwilling to relay.

Not keen on being played the fool I accelerated in the descent towards the third climb, taking big risks which rewarded themselves in a 14 second lead at the foot of the climb. A lead which I held just up till the top as I took the full points, Sella picking up 4 behind Trofimov and Vansummeren.

As the peloton caught back up with us it was Movistar that began to lay a brutal pace on the peloton, leaving nobody to even attempt and attack. I surely didn’t as I had a tough time following as was. Valverde repaid his team their efforts as he won the reduced peloton sprint.

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	3h24'58
2	Maxime Monfort	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
3	Sergio Henao	Sky Procycling	s.t.
4	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
5	Arthur Vichot	FDJ.fr	s.t.

1	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	40
2	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	20
3	Julien Antomarchi	La Pomme Marseille	16

The queens’ stage would be a prey for riders from the mold Contador, Valverde or Wiggins. Meaning actual climbers. Meaning the team its job today was to have Fabian lose as little time as possible. A plan in which I played a key role.

It wasn’t until the descent towards the final climb of the day the Mont Faron that the two best descendeurs attacked out of the peloton. With those two I obviously mean Fabian and I. (Has there ever been a mountain biker who could not descent? Besides Michael Rasmussen in a wet time trial, obviously.)

Our attack was not for the stage win, but rather to gain a time gap before the start of the Faron. A gap which ended up being 34 seconds as I pushed out every ounce of power in my legs to get Fabian as fresh as possible to the foot of the 5km long mountain on which the Swiss launched himself. Right away finding a proper cadence as he slowly inched away from me. Remains from the early breakaway dropping like flies past the both of us.


Shortly thereafter a thinned out peloton blew past me as I rode up the Faron at my own pace, just as Fabian did a minute ahead of me. It was with a certain sovereignty with which Valverde took the stage with over half a minute on Contador and almost two ahead of Fabian. Still the Swiss managed to hold onto a 4th place in the GC which was all we could have hoped form.

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	3h48'14
2	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 40
3	Philip Deignan	Sky Procycling	+ 1'10
4	Jérémy Roy	FDJ.fr	+ 1'19
5	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	s.t.
-
12	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 1'55
-
21	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 2'38

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	11h08'32
2	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	+ 13
3	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 21
4	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 55
5	Andrew Talansky	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'10
6	Maxime Monfort	Lotto - Belisol	+ 1'52
7	Daniel Navarro Garcia	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
8	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ.fr	+ 1'54
9	Pierre Rolland	Team Europcar	+ 2'32
10	Peter Kennaugh	Sky Procycling	+ 2'49
-
22	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 3'53

1	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	40
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	26
3	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	20

With a descent between the final climb and the finish, and a far from great descendeur like Bradley Wiggins between Fabian and a podium finish, our game-plan was clear for the day: survive the climb in the group of the favourites and try and gain the required seconds in the 10km descent towards Grasse.

Our first win of the day came fairly easy as the early breakaway counted 6 men who were not a threat in the mountain classification. Allowing us to let them gobble up the mountain points making it just a matter of finishing the race to make the mountain jersey officially mine.

As we started with the final climb the breakaway had a lead of just over 2 minutes meaning that they would be fighting for the stage win. (A battle which Jeannesson won.)

Another battle raged in the peloton though as Rolland opened up the race by attacking early with a focused Valverde right in his wheel. To both mine and Fabian his surprise Contador nor Wiggins reacted. They had accepted their defeat! Making our job easier as Yaroslav and I were left to pace the peloton for almost the entire climb before Contador decided he was up for a bit of racing after all, gaining a good minute with his acceleration before we started with the descent. Wiggins however was still in our group which had been reduced to a mere 10 men.

With Wiggins in our wheel Fabian and I dived into the descent, it didn’t require a lot of risk taking for us to drop Brit who was descending like an old lady on her menopause.

By the time we reached the bottom we had gained a significant gap. Contador and Valverde were still out of sight, but with Fabian performing his own mini prologue in the final 3km (in which he embarrassingly dropped me) the third spot on the podium had been secured. Our directeur sportif happy enough with the achievement to allow a glass of champagne during dinner!

1	Arnold Jeannesson	FDJ.fr	5h03'55
2	André Cardoso	Garmin - Sharp	+ 10
3	Eduard Vorganov	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Thomas Damuseau	Giant - Shimano	+ 18
5	Eduardo Sepulveda	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
6	Amaël Moinard	BMC Racing Team	+ 25
7	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 40
8	Pierre Rolland	Team Europcar	+ 1'13
9	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'24
10	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 1'52
11	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 2'16
12	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEDGE	+ 2'47
13	Andrew Talansky	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
14	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
15	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	s.t.

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	16h13'07
2	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'05
3	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 2'07
4	Bradley Wiggins	Sky Procycling	+ 2'20
5	Pierre Rolland	Team Europcar	+ 3'05
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12	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 5'29

1

Alejandro Valverde

Movistar Team

75

1	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	40
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	26
3	André Cardoso	Garmin - Sharp	26

1	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ.fr	16h17'08
2	Thomas Damuseau	Giant - Shimano	+ 1'22
3	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 1'28