Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes 2025

May 26, 2025 The Coupe De France continues with a very mountainous race through the Mercan'tour National Park. At only 153KM, the race takes in 4,300M of climbing between Puget-Théniers and Valberg. The first climb of the day, the Col Saint-Martin, starts in Roquebillière after 56KM of racing for 17KM at 5.4% but the second half of the climb averages 7%. The Col de la Couillole is next, an HC climb that averages over 7% for almost 16KM. There is almost no descent off of the la Couillole however. The riders stay up high for 14KM through the finish line (in the opposite direction) before finally descending into Guillaumes where they start the final climb up to Valberg. The summit is reached after 14.4KM. The Valberg is not as steep as la Couillole at 6.2% but a long day in the saddle should see a very select group battle for the win. Noah Knecht of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur and Nicola Marcerou of TotalEnergies went in the early break but were caught on the descent of the Col Saint-Martin. Cristián Rodríguez of Arkéa-B&B Hotels went on the attack halfway up the Col de la Couillole and with 47KM to go, he had nearly a minute on the reduced peloton that was being led by Tom Donnenwirth of Groupama-FDJ. When Donnenwirth pulled off at 44KM to go, there were fewer than 15 riders left in the peloton and they still had 3KM to climb. By the top, only Giovanni Carboni of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Jesús Herrada of Cofidis, and Iván Ramiro Sosa and José Félix Parra of Equipo Kern Pharma were left. Rodríguez went through the finish line with 27.5KM to go with an increased advantage, now up to 1 minute 55 seconds and a long descent ahead. By the start of the final climb to Valberg, Rodríguez had kept a lead of 1 minute 30 seconds but the chase group was reduced to Carboni and Parra as Sosa and Herrada were dropped on the descent and caught by the third group on the road. Sosa attacked out of the third group and bridged up to Carboni and his teammate, Parra, with 4KM to go. Rodríguez had extended his gap to 2 minutes 30 seconds though and still looking very strong. Cristián Rodríguez completed a storming 48KM solo attack with the win, only the third win of his career. Parra came home next, 1 minute 42 seconds later with Sosa in third, giving Equipo Kern Pharma a nice haul of UCI points for packing the podium.