Place Name: Carrefour De Funel
Address: Carrefour De Funel, 06410 Biot, France
Details: February 22, 2026
Racing near home isn't possible for many in the peloton but today's route weaves it's way on roads that most could navigate with their eyes closed. If you're not based in Andorra or Girona, you're most likely in Nice and the opening of the race goes up maybe the most famous climb from the city, the Col d'Èze. From Èze, the route passes through La Turbie, over the Col de Châteauneuf and Aspremont and eventually North to Vence. With about 45KM to go, the riders start the longest climb of the day up to Gourdon. This stretch of road is nearly 12KM long but averages only 4.5%. Once at the top, the riders descend to Châteauneuf-Grasse. The final 20KM are characterized by a series of short ramps. There are five in total, all between 1-2KM long and 4-6% with the last one dragging up to the finish in Biot for 1.6KM at 5.6%. This parcours is primed for aggressive racing with a strong start list to match.
Riders to watch: Christian Scaroni, Alberto Bettiol, Lenny Martinez, Frank van den Broek, Quinn Simmons, Paul Lapeira, Ewen Costiou, Clément Izquierdo, Marc Hirschi
The start was very hard and the situation was still in flux as the race started the Col de Carros with 78KM to go, a few kilometers before Vence. A group of ten had just gotten away including Guillaume Martin of Groupama-FDJ United, Jamie Meehan and Edoardo Zamperini of Cofidis, Theo Lévêque of TotalEnergies, Hartthijs De Vries of Unibet Rose Rockets, Axel Bouquet of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93, Kenny Molly of Van Rysel Roubaix, Tom Mainguenaud of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur, Maël Guégan of CIC Pro Cycling, and Valentin Darbellay of Elite Foundations. Nicolas Vinokurov of XDS-Astana bridged to make eleven but the peloton was active and only 15 seconds behind. Vinokurov and Martin were eager workers but Bahrain Victorious picked up the chase and brought the race all back together on the descent with 70.5KM to go.
A counter attack went a few kilometers later with Cedrik Bakke Christophersen of Unibet Rose Rockets, Vlad Van Mechelen of Bahrain Victorious, Oscar Chamberlain of Decathlon CMA CGM, and Niels Driesen of Lotto Intermarché. XDS-Astana set up the chase behind and allowed the escape to get an advantage but never more than 50 seconds. As the break were about to turn on to the climb to Gourdon, Chamberlain went left instead of right. The others took the correct way and by the time Chamberlain got himself back on course, his companions were gone up the road and he was forced to drift back to the peloton. Within one kilometer, XDS-Astana had caught the other three but the Kazakh squad continued to pound the pavement and drive the pace forward.
Unfortunately, the cameras had trouble transmitting right as the first attacks started. With 43KM to go, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious had made a move with Aurélien Paret-Peintre of Decathlon CMA CGM, Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United, and Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling. The bunch blew apart behind as Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana tried to bridge up. About 15 riders were latched on to Scaroni and none of them were working. Meanwhile up front, Martinez and Brenner went forward and had a sizeable gap to everyone else by the top with 35KM to go. The remnants of the peloton, which numbered about twelve, crested the top in the old feudal village of Gourdon about 35 seconds after Martinez and Brenner. The whereabouts of Costiou and Paret-Peintre was still unclear.
At the bottom in Châteauneuf-Grasse with 28.5KM to go, Brenner and Martinez were 40 seconds ahead of the peloton that now included Costiou and Paret-Peintre. XDS-Astana had one rider working for Scaroni with TotalEnergies and Decathlon CMA CGM taking turns now too. On the Sophia Antipolis, one of the short hills coming into Biot with 13KM to go, the gap had come down to 20 seconds and looked to be closing. The kilometers kept ticking by and belief started to ebb away from the chase. The effort behind was not steady and there were plenty of passengers sitting on.
With 3.5KM to go, Clément Champoussin of XDS-Astana broke clear from the disorganized chase group. Decathlon CMA CGM still had numbers in the group and they went to work to pull back Champoussin. The win was still a possibility for the chase because when the helicopter shot panned back from the two leaders as they started the final ramp up to Biot, they had around 15 seconds on the group which had caught Champoussin. Inside of 1KM to go, Paul Lapeira of Decathlon CMA CGM came storming out of the chase and was quickly across to the Martinez and Brenner. He took no respite when he reached them and went right passed. Martinez blew up trying to get on the wheel and faded backwards, ultimately finishing fifth. Scaroni made it up to Brenner and got within a few seconds of Lapeira but ran out of road. Lapeira took the victory by 2 seconds to Scaroni with Simon Carr of Cofidis in third who just got around Brenner on the line.
Tags: Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, 2026, February, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Biot, Guillaume Martin, Jamie Meehan, Edoardo Zamperini, Theo Lévêque, Hartthijs De Vries, Axel Bouquet, Kenny Molly, Tom Mainguenaud, Maël Guégan, Valentin Darbellay, Nicolas Vinokurov, Cedrik Bakke Christophersen, Vlad Van Mechelen, Oscar Chamberlain, Niels Driesen, Lenny Martinez, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Ewen Costiou, Marco Brenner, Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Paul Lapeira, Simon Carr