Bryan Coquard (Europcar) got another great boost of confidence for the French Championships and the Tour de France when he powered to an easy win in the bunch sprint on the final stage of the Route du Sud. The Frenchman was given the perfect lead-out by Yoann Gene and Angelo Tulik and relegated Lorrenzo Manzin (FDJ) and Leonardo Duque (Colombia) to the minor positions with a big margin. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished safely in the peloton to take the overall victory.

Last year Bryan Coquard had a solid Tour de France debut and this year he will be back in his home race aiming for his first stage victory in the grand tour. Based on his performance in his warm-up race Route du Sud, he is fully ready to go up against the fastest sprinters in the biggest race in the world.

Coquard came up short in the uphill sprint on stage one where he simply ran out of legs in the finale but one day later he made amends when he took a hugely dominant victory in the uphill battle on stage 2. Today he had the chance to show that he can also win in a flat finish when the final stage of the race came down to the expected bunch sprint.

In the past, Coquard has had a hard time in the fight for positioning and his lead-out train has not been working well. Hence, the technical finale in Gaillac would be a challenge for him but the team delivered a perfect performance to deliver their sprinter to a second victory in the race, showing great improvement in the lead-outs.

"It is a good balance," he told L'Equipe. "The team did a big job for me to take another victory . Jérôme Cousin managed to slip into the early break and we had the chance to see how things evolved because the Saxo-Tinkoff team was the only one to chase.

"We waited quite a while since the last rider to be caught by the peloton was none other than Jerome. Giovanni [Bernaudeau] started the lead-out and Yohann (Gene) sprinted with 1km to go. Everything went perfectly. At 300 meters to go, I still had [Angelo] Tulik with me. I decided to start with 200 meters to go because we almost start from scratch and I felt sure I would win. The team is really well rewarded for their efforts.

"I still have a touch of frustration [about missing out in stage 1]. I launched my sprint too early and the results could have been better. That is cycling and you always learn from mistakes. I'd rather lose in the Route du Sud that in the Championships of France or the Tour.