Colombia-Coldeportes’ Leonardo Duque gave his best to celebrate his 35th birthday in style in Circuit de la Sarthe final stage, Epau-Le Lude of 178 km, and got closer to the goal than his 5th place in the sprint won by Nacer Bouhanni(Cofidis) would tell. Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale) took advantage of the bonifications sprint to recover his gap to Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) and take the overall win for the second year in a row. Leonardo Duque was the best team rider in the overall, 19th at 48 seconds.

The morning breakaway, started by Serghei Tvetcov (Androni) and Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen), was neutralized with almost 40 km to go by the peloton pulled by Cannondale-Garmin, looking to give Navardauskas the chance to take the lead through the bonus seconds. Navardauskas himself and Machado (Katusha) tried an attack in the last laps on the final circuit, but the race was back together in view of the finish under the push by Boaro and his Tinkoff-Saxo team.

The uphill final drag saw Leonardo Duque remain sheltered until 300 metres to the line: “Leonardo was well positioned," Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi told, "and he was the first to launch the sprint with 250 metres to go. Bouhanni was on his wheel, and went past him at the very last. Leonardo was very motivated on his birthday, and played his chances smartly, as usual. He did the best he could. Generally speaking – apart from a below-par time trial, even for non-specialists – we provided quite solid performances here, particularly with Leonardo.”

Next on for Team Colombia-Coldeportes will be Vuelta Castilla y Leon, from April 17th to 19th.