Benjamin King (Cannondale-Garmin) took his first professional victory when he took a hugely surprising stage win in the opening leg of the Criterium International. Having escaped from the gun with Clement Saint-Martin (Marseille), he managed to keep the peloton at bay before beating his companion in the uphill sprint to take the overall lead in the French race.

Cannondale-Garmin has had a frustrating start to the 2015 season. Until today, the team had failed to win a single stage in recent days media had started to discuss what had gone wrong for the American team.

Today the team finally broke the drought but the rider to open the account was not one the main stars who are expected to shine for the Americans. Instead, it was loyal domestique Ben King who took his first professional victory in unusual circumstances.

The two-day, three-stage Criterium International always kicks off with a short, flat stage and since the race was moved to Corsica a few years ago, the sprinters have never been denied in the opening leg. However, King managed to create the big surprise when he managed to keep the peloton at bay on the flat roads on the Corsican coast.

King had attacked from the gun with Clement Saint-Martin and they had built an advantage of 4.30 before Europcar, Bretagne and FDJ started to chase. They seemed to have the situation firmly under control when they had reduced the gap to 2.35 with 25km to go but from there things started to unravel for the sprinters.

With 15km to go, the escapees still had 2.10 in hand and they entered the final 10km with an advantage of 1.45. As they passed the 3km to go banner 1.20 ahead of the peloton, it was clear that they would be allowed to contest the stage win.

In the difficult uphill sprint in Porto-Vecchio, King turned out to be the strongest as he managed to distance Saint Martin to take his first professional victory. 39 seconds later Romain Feillu (Bretagne) beat Tom Veelers (Giant-Alpecin) in the sprint but the Frenchman was left wondering what might have been.

With the win, King also takes the first leader’s jersey in the race and he goes into the afternoon time trial with an 8-second advantage over Saint Martin. The short 7km course is pretty technical and as King has a big advantage over the favourites and is a pretty good time triallist, he has a very good chance of defending his lead before the big test in tomorrow’s mountain stage.

A flat opener

As usual, the Criterium International kicked off with a short morning stage that started and finished in Porto-Vecchio. Most of the 92.5km stage took place on the flat roads along the Corsican roads but the riders did briefly venture inlands to head up a small climb at the midpoint of the stage. Then it was back onto flat roads before they reached the tricky uphill sprint, with the final kilometre averaging 3.4%.

There were no non-starters as 118 riders left Porto-Vecchio under a sunny sky and it didn’t take long for the early break to be formed. Ben King and Clement Saint-Martin attacked in the early part of the stage and while the sprint teams took it easy, they managed to build and advantage of 4.30.

King takes the mountains jersey

At this point, Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Etienne Van Empel (Roompot) had attacked in an attempt to bridge the gap and they had reduced their deficit to just 1.10. Meanwhile, the Europcar team of Thomas Boudat and the Bretagne team of Romain Feillu started to chase and they kept the gap stable at around 4.30. The chasers soon gave up and were swept up.

As the started to climb the Cote de Conca, the peloton upped the pace and when Ben King scored maximum points in the KOM sprint to claim the first mountains jersey, they had reduced the gap to 3.15.  Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM) scored the final 2 points as the first rider from the peloton. FDJ now also started to chase and at the 60km mark, the gap was only 2.50. At this point, King won the intermediate sprint while Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) sprinted ahead to take the final bonus second on offer

A fierce pursuit

With 25km to go, things seemed to be under control as the gap was only 2.35 but during the next 5km, the peloton only managed to reduce their deficit by 15 seconds. 15km from the line, it was still 2.10 and the escapees entered the final 10km with an advantage of 1.45.

The peloton only managed to reduce it by 10 seconds during the next 5km and as the duo were still 1.20 ahead with 3km to go, it was clear that the winner would be one of the escapees. In the end, King emerged as the strongest.