After a day filled with climbs and descents that served to split the peloton and shake out many of the sprinters from start to finish, it was a much reduced front peloton that raced into Bastia to settle the race in a sprint finish. 

Fairly was well positioned heading into the final kilometres together with Thierry Hupond, but the hectic final saw the two slip back and by the sprint all Fairly could reach was just outside the top ten placings.

The race was won by Thomas Boudat (Europcar) with a well-timed finishing sprint. Next up for the riders in Corsica is the Critérium International starting on Saturday, where Team Giant-Alpecin starts with the same six riders that lined up for today’s one-day race.

Coach Christian Guiberteau said after the race to the Giant-Alpecin website:

“In the end it was a bigger bunch than expected today at the finish but it was still a hard day in the mountains. After the second col there was just a group of around 20 riders left in front but Caleb and Thierry got back to the group on the flat section after, and then Fredrik [Ludvigsson] and then Cheng [Ji] also made it back to the front.

“Chad [Haga] and Tom [Veelers] stopped at the feed zone as by then it was too far in front to make it back. At the end the guys worked to get together to set something up for the sprint and Caleb and Thierry were in a good position but it was a real fight at the end and made for the sprinters. Caleb did well to hold on for 12th, and it was good to see the guys make something of the situation on the road.”

Thierry Hupond added:

“I’ve had a good programme over the past weeks with Tirreno being my last race, a hard week to help build my shape ahead of some important races to come.

“Today started with a lot of attacks, similar to a Coupe de France race, and we were trying to go with the breaks but not much was getting away. We didn’t have the legs to follow over the main climb but I was confident that we would get back to the front after on the long flat section and this worked well.

“I tried with Caleb to get into position for the sprint at the end but it was really hectic. We were there at the key roundabout before the finish but we lost some positions and couldn’t help each other too well at the end.”