After the very rainy first stage, the riders of the Tour du Haut Var were back in the sun and while Johan Le Bon who was in the breakaway for 100 kilometers, has not achieved his dream of winning the stage, his teammate Mathieu Ladagnous took fourth place in Draguignan and in the overall standings.

It took nearly 60 kilometers for the breakaway of the day to take shape and Le Bon joined forces with Belkov (Katusha), Martinez (Europcar), Turgis (Cofidis), Mihaylov (CCC-Sprandi), Konovalovas (Marseille 13-KTM), Guay (Auber 93), Demoitié (Wallonia Brussels) and De Wortelaer (Veranclassic-Ekoi). Their advance reached  maximum of two minutes.

"They didn't work well together," says FDJ manager Marc Madiot. Therefore Johan attacked quite far from the finish (36 kilometers exactly). Turgis followed him and took a turn but he exploded. The Mur de Tuillières was too much for Johan who is riding well. Just like Matthieu Landagnous who took fourth place in the stage behind Mezgec, Philippe Gilbert and Planckaert. He and Johan are close to the classics season. Finally, I see that Benoît Vaugrenard is good since he crested the the summit of the Tuillières with the best.

"Every year we have a problem with the Tour Down Under in Australia. When the riders return, we have to let them recover and then they are short of competition. This is true for Olivier Le Gac and Jussi Veikkanen."

"It went pretty fast," Le Bon told Directvelo. "Several groups have tried. I tried to be join them. In the team, everyone had to go on the attack expect Matthieu Ladagnous and Laurent Pichon who were protected. The right move finally went between the 1st and 2nd KOM sprint. We got along well, we worked well together. At the first passage of the line, I saw that everyone was starting to look at the others. So I decided to attack a few moments later. I managed to get an advantage of more than 1 minute but I lost all my advantage when I got to the Cote de Tuilières. I am well prepared for the opening weekend in Belgium."