Having stepped down to continental level with the Marseille team, Ignatas Konovalovas hopes to return to the pro level next year. Yesterday he put himself in the spotlight when he won the mountains jersey at the Tour du Haut Var.

"My goal was to get into the breakaway to defend my mountains jersey," he told Directvelo. "I did a big effort. Finally, after several attempts, the escape got clear after 60km of racing. I gave everything to win the KOM sprints. Then I did not have much strength to go all the way to the finish. My mission was accomplished, I defended my jersey."

"For this race, we had three leaders:Julien Loubet, Julien El Fares and Rémy Di Gregorio," his Marseille manager Frédéric Rostaing told Directvelo. "The rest of the team was set to support them. Unfortunately, we lost Clement St. Martin who suffered from gastroenteritis. We didn't want to attack too early as the racing is very often a waiting game. So we gambled everything on having the maximum strength for the finale.

"Julien Loubet tried his luck on the Cote de Tuilières with Davide Rebellin. In the end, Julien El Fares was 5th in the sprint and took 7th overall. It's a good weekend for the team even if there is no victory. We were well prepared with a bit of training on these roads as a result of the cancellation of the Tour Mediteraneen. Furthermore, Ignatas Konovalovas won the mountains jersey and his condition is improving so it should be even better next weekend."