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Christian Scaroni (Astana-XDS) picked up his team’s first victory of the season and his own third professional win at the Classic Var.
The Italian was at the front of a thinned-down group on the final corner of the punishingly steep Mur de Fayence, and powered away to beat the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale duo of Paul Lapeira and Victory Lafay.
The day’s breakaway was only caught with 1.3km to go, leading to a nervy final on the lower slopes of the Mur de Fayence, but after a spirited final dig the serious climbers came to the fore and ultimately a group of five contested the sprint.
Kévin Vauqelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were fourth and fifth across the line, while defending champion Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious) was seventh, eight seconds off the winning group.
“It was really hard,” Scaroni said. “We caught the breakaway [with] 1k to finish, [Nicola] Conci did incredible work for me. I waited to attack Lafay and then the last 200 I gave everything.
Scaroni had recorded three podium finishes already this season but hadn’t recorded a win since June 2022, at the Adriatica Ionica Race.
“I think I deserve it, because I [finished on the podium], the victory [did] not arrive, but today it arrived. I’m really happy for the first victory of the team.”
How it Unfolded
Only the second edition of the Classic Var, today’s parcours was more consistently up-and-down than the inaugural race but considerably shorter – 164km from Le Luc to Fayence, compared to last year’s 184.3km to Mont Faron.
This year’s route featured three categorised climbs, the cat 3 Col de la Grange (8 km à 4.6%) and Gorges du Blavet (2.4 km à 5%), and a short, steep cat 2 summit finish at Fayence (1.2 km à 9.6%). The race final promised the toughest section of the entire day: a…
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