All or nothing. Colombia-Coldeportes’ Leonardo Duque had Sunday April 5th Paris-Camembert (France) in his radar, and did not give up without trying everything he could on the 200 km distance from Port-Audemer to Vimoutiers, where Frenchman Julien Loubet (Marseille) eventually landed the spoils.

The experienced Colombian, who will turn 35 on April 10th, managed to work his way into the important move started with 19 km to go, when a 7-man group got clear on the tough Mur des Champeux. Along with Duque, Fedrigo (Bretagne), Vichot (FDJ), Bakelants (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Delaplace (Bretagne), Pichon (FDJ) and Loubet (Marseille) opened a 35-second gap on the bunch on the final uphill of the day, the Mur de la Cavée de Croutte, with 10 km to go.

At the top of the hill, Loubet and Fedrigo moved away of the fellow escapees and held on until the finish, where Marseille’s rider sprinted for his first seasonal win. Behind them, the chasers were reeled in by the pack with 2 km to go, and it was Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) to edge the sprint for third place. Duque concluded in 38th position.

“Leonardo really cared about this race, and had stopped early on Friday to save energies for it,” Sports Director Oliverio Rincon explained. “Getting into the final move was not easy, and he did it great. Unfortunately, once again a good performance was not rewarded by a good result. But the wheel will turn for us too, sooner or later.”

The next Team Colombia-Coldeportes’ fixture will start on Tuesday, April 7th: it’s Circuit de La Sarthe, in France, with Avila, Molano, Duque, Sarmiento, Valencia and Carlos Mario Ramirez in the action until Friday April 10th.