Mathias Frank (IAM) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) emerged as the strongest when the Criterium International ended with its usual mountaintop finish on the Col de l'Ospedale. In the final kilometre, the duo dropped Tiago Machado (NetApp), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Frank Schleck (Trek) and so could share the spoils at the French race, with Frank taking the stage and Peraud in the overall victory.

Mathias Frank has had a slow start to his first year at IAM but today he started to again show the potential that had almost given him the overall win at last year's Tour de Suisse. The strong Swiss emerged as the strongest in today's big mountain stage of the Criterium International.

Frank kept his powder dry all thy way up the final climb of the Col de l'Ospedale and always stayed in contention when the gradual selection was made. In the end a strong 4-rider group emerged, with Frank being joined by Frank Schleck, Rafal Majka, and Jean-Christophe Peraud.

The quartet started to look at each other when they reached the final kilometre and this allowed Tiago Machado and Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne) to join form behind. The standstill came to an end when Schleck launched the first acceleration but his rivals had no trouble responding to the resurgent Luxembourger.

Instead, Frank made his move with 500m to go and his acceleration was much harder. Peraud had to dig very deep to close a small gap and get onto his wheel while the others were all left behind.

Frank didn't look back as he powered his way towards the line, keeping the acceleration going all the way to the top. Knowing that he had the overall victory locked up, Peraud had little incentive - and probably no strength either - to pass the Swiss and so Frank crossed the line to take a big win for his IAM team.

Peraud safely crossed the line in 2nd while Machado had recovered well in the finale to take third. Schleck and Majka whose teams had both been key protagonists throughout the day had to settle for fourth and fifth respectively.

Having started the day fourth overall, Peraud had left Tom Dumoulin (Giant), Rohan Dennis (Garmin) and Bob Jungels (Trek) behind and so the Ag2r rider was a convincing overall winner to continue his excellent start to the season. However, it was a close one as he only ended one second ahead of Frank  while Machado rounded out the podium.

With the two-day race done and dusted, the French season is put on hold until Friday when the Coupe de France resumes with the hilly one-day race Route Adelie Vitré.

The queen stage

As it has become tradition since moving the race to Corsica, the Criterium International ended with its queen stage that brought the riders over 176 from Porto-Vecchio to the top of the Col de l'Ospedale. After an opening flat part along the coast, the riders headed into the mountains for the second part of the stage where they went up 5 climbs before returning to the coast. The stage ended with the 14.1km climb of the Col de l'Ospedale whose average gradient of 6.2% was set to produce a worthy overall winner of the race.

As it is often the case in big mountain stages, the race was off to a very fast stage and it took some time for the early break to be established. Heading down the flat and windy coastal roads, a lot of riders tried to take off but for a long time no one had any success.

The break takes off

After 27km of racing, 5 riders finally managed to separate themselves from the group when Angelo Tulik (Europcar), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Leonardo Duque (Colombia), Yoann Paillot (La Pomme Marseille), and Flavien Dassonville (BigMat). After the hectic start to the stage, the peloton slowed down and allowed the gap to grow.

After 35km of racing, the front quintet were 1.35 ahead and their advantage had come up to 3.55 at the 40km mark. In a very fast opening hour, the riders covered no less than 46km.

The gap stabilizes

The peloton allowed the gap to grow to 4.25 but had now upped the pace to bring the situation under control. Meanwhile, Fouchard beat Paillot and Dassonville in the first intermediate sprint while Duque was the first at the top of the first categorized climb.

Duque repeated his performance on the second climb, with the gap being stable at around 4.30 while Dassonville was first at the second intermediate sprint. At that point, the gap had come up to 4.45 but that was as much as the leaders would get.

The break is caught

The peloton started to reel in the escapees and at the 94km mark, the gap was down to 3.15. Duque continued his quest to take the mountains jersey when he won the third KOM sprint at that point of the race.

The gap was now melting away and at the 108km mark, the leaders only had 50 seconds in hand. Four kilometres further down the road, it was back together.

Coppel and Schleck are dropped

Trek showed their intentions for Schleck as they set a fast pace in the hilly terrain to make the race tough and discourage any further attacks. That was too much for Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) who was a surprise victim to the speed on the fifth climb of the day.

The gap was now down to 60 riders as Andy Schleck (Trek) was the next rider to drop off. At the 147km mark, the pace went down a bit and this allowed Bryan Nauleau (Europcar) and Caleb Fairly (Garmin) to take off.

Tinkoff-Saxo ride hard

The duo managed to build up a 30-second gap but as Tinkoff-Saxo were now setting things up for Majka on the final climb, they didn't get much more than that. 20km from the line they were 35 seconds ahead, with Fairly beating Nauleau in the final intermediate sprint.

At that point, the gap was down to just 18 seconds and after one kilometre of the final ascent, they had been brought back. Bretagne were now setting a hard pace for Sepulveda and with 9.8km to go, they sent Brice Feillu up the road.

Excellent Busche

The lanky Frenchman was quickly brought back as Matthew Busche was now doing a fantastic job for Trek on the front of the small group of favourites. Riders kept dropping off as Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ) - a past winner of the stage - was one of the riders to let the main group go.

Dennis and race leader Dumoulin both fell off close to the 5km to go mark when Ag2r heated up the action. Alexis Vuillermoz and Peraud started to make things tough, with Peraud launched an attack 5.1km from the line.

A 7-rider group emerges

The acceleration created a 7-rider group with the Ag2r duo, Schleck, Majka, Machado, Frank and Sepulveda. A little further behind, Jungels and Remy Di Gregorio (Marseille) were trying ahrd to get back in contention.

Their efforts were in vain though as Vuillermoz set a furious pace on the front for Peraud. At this point, Dumoulin was already 45 seconds behind.

Frank makes his first move

3.3km from the finish, Machado made the first attack but it was the acceleration from Frank 2.5km from the line that made the difference. Majka, Schleck, Frank and Pearud surged clear but there was no great cooperation in the front quartet.

This allowed Machado and Sepulveda to return to the front when they passed the flamme rouge but a little later, Schleck again heated up the action. The Luxembourger had no success and instead Frank and Peraud made the move that proved that they were the strongest riders in the race.