Having been forces to step down to continental level with the Marseille team, Ignatas Konovalovas showed that he can still compete with the professionals when he was part of the breakaway in the first stage of the Tour du Haut Var and nearly stayed away.

"It was a good day, even though we had rain since the start," he tol Directvelo. "Roy Curvers (Team Giant-Alpecin) launched the breakaway and Thomas Vaubourzeix joined us later. Then we worked well together, we found the right tempo. It's a shame to have been caught by the bunch like that ... at least for me! 

"Ben (Gastauer) was amazing in the final. 7km from the finish, I saw him 100-150m ahead of me but I did not manage to catch him. I still lack power in the legs to be strong. I though that Ben made a mistake by attacking. But he won so he was right. He deserves his win."