Classic Var 2025

February 21, 2025 The Classic Var one day race takes on 2,200M of elevation across 164KM. It is a gradually rolling day but the last 1.2KM is up the Mur de Fayence which averages 8.5% and should produce a puncheur if a group comes to the finish together. Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto, Emmanuel Morin of Van Rysel Roubaix, Maël Guégan of CIC-U-Nantes, and Jaakko Hänninen and Damien Girard of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur made up the composition of the break. They had 90 seconds with 62KM to go as they made their way down the descent of the Col de la Grange with EF-Education EasyPost, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, and Bahrain Victorious doing the chasing. Veistroffer led over the climb passed Les Gorges du Blavet at 27KM from the finish with their gap holding at 1 minute 20 seconds. With 18KM to go, the peloton strung out through Saint-Paul-en-Forêt to get the best line down the narrow, twisting descent. The race turned on to a wider Departmental road and that is where the drag racing for positioning began. With 4KM to go, the five man break had 30 seconds but the peloton were sprinting to gain position for the critical right hand corner at the bottom of the Mur de Fayence. The break were caught as they swung on to finishing climb. Israel-Premier Tech and EF-Education EasyPost were well positioned at the front, as were XDS-Astana. With 500M to go, Decathlon AG2R stretched out the bunch when the grade went above 10%. Paul Lapeira made an attack with his teammate Victor Lafay and Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana clinging on. Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious got on as well to make five riders in contention for the win. Scaroni went through the final tight corner and made one last sprint. He took a shallow right corner and crossed the line to take XDS-Astana's first win of the season. Lapeira and Lafay had to settle for second and third. Vauquelin came in next in fourth with Buitrago behind in fifth.