Martin proved the strongest on the final ascent, launching his move early on the climb. He held off the chasers dancing on the pedals to the top. Martin celebrated with a fist in the air, taking his first victory in almost three years.
The race is part of the Coupe de France series, with Stian Edvardsen-Fredheim (Uno-X) leading the overall standings by 7 points ahead of Clément Venturini (Arkea BB Hotels). Martin moved into third place with 70 points he earned for the win Friday, joining five other riders 10 points behind the leader.
"I think I had the confidence all day. I had tactically perfect day."
-Guillaume Martin
An excellent team effort from Masao Shimazaki, Shunsuke Imamura, Kevin Colleoni, Louis Meintjes gave Intermarché-Wanty the control to keep Georg Zimmermann in the leader's jersey, confirming his overall victory with an 11-second lead over David De La Cruz. This is the second success this season for Intermarché-Wanty, which wins the Giro d'Abruzzo on the home soil of the wine partner Vini Fantini in its first participation.
"So it's an important accomplishment, which I'm very proud of. But I'm especially very proud of my teammates. After my good performance yesterday, I owe this success in the final classification to them. I didn't spend a single meter in the wind today; thanks to them, I didn't have to make any effort to secure my final victory. I am extremely grateful to my teammates; we demonstrated our collective strength in this final stage."
-Georg Zimmermann
Borghini recovered from concussion she suffered during the Tour of Flanders, took a second consecutive win at De Brabantse Pijl Dames.
The Belgian battle of De Brabantse Pijl
Comments