Stephane Rossetto (BigMat) confirmed his enormous talent on today's final stage of the Tour du Limousin which he won in solo fashion. Having joined a very strong 5-rider group inside the final 10km, he attacked on his own to take the first big win of his career while Martin Elmiger (IAM) made it safely through another day to be crowned winner of the 4-day race.

26-year old Stephane Rossetto has caught much attention in the Tour de l'Ain and Tour du Limousin, showing aggressive riding and impressive climbing. Today he put the icing on the cake when he won the final stage of the Limousin race.

All was set for a bunch sprint when a high-calibre 5-rider group containing Rossetto, Angel Madrazo (Movistar), Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel), Julien Simon (Sojasun) and Guillaume Levarlet (Cofidis) got clear inside the final 10km. Those 5 riders combined forces to keep a fast-moving peloton at bay.

Rossetto knew he had little chance against a rider like Simon in the uphill sprint and so he went off on his own. In impressive fashion he held off his chasers to take a solo win while Levarlet beat Madrazo in the sprint for 3rd.

The peloton crossed the line a few seconds later with race leader Martin Elmiger in 16th position. Hence, the Swiss took his first stage race win since the 2010 4 Jours de Dunkerque while defending champion Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) finished 2nd and Andrea Di Corrado (Bardiani) 3rd.

A big group is formed

The Tour du Limousin finished with a 178,8km stage in the hilly Limousin terrain. Three laps on a 12km finishing circuit with a couple of climbs to break the legs made for a hard end to the race.

Anthony Geslin (FDJ), Mattia Pozzo (Vini Fantini), Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme) and Julien Duval (Roubaix) were the first to get clear in the high-speed opening phase of the race and they were later joined by Evaldas Siskevicius (Sojasun), Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r), Wesley Kreder (Vacansoleil), Christophe Premont (Crelan), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC) and Julien Duval (Roubaix). Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) set off in pursuit and he made it across to the leaders.

IAM leads the chase

The 11-rider group was allowed to build up an almost  6-minute gap when the IAM team of race leader Elmiger decided to up the pace. For a long time, they kept the advantage rather stable before the chase kicked off in earnest, Bardiani also contributing to the work.

With the gap down to less than 3 minutes, Siskevicius, Premont and Vaoubourzeix tried an unsuccessful move and instead the 11-rider group once again started to cooperate. Behind, the peloton was now in furious chase with Movustar, IAM, Bardiani and Euskaltel all contributing to the work.

The breakaway splits up

Duval decided to try an unsuccessful solo move and instead, it was the counterattack by Siskevicius and Rostollan that moved clear. Pozzo, Duval, Kreder and Premont set off in pursuit while Riblon, Vaubourzeix, Geslin, Fouchard and Duval Mihaylov were all caught.

Pozzo was the last from the chase group to get caught when Marco Canola (Bardiani) made it across to the leaders. He left his fatigued companions behind and was the lone leader when he approached the final lap on the circuit.

Canola still on his own

Tristan Valentin (Cofidis) and Guillaume Faucon (BigMat) joined Canola but the Italian was clearly the strongest, once again going off on his own. It was, however, all in vain and on the final lap, it was all back together.

When all was set for a bunch sprint, Madrazo, Izagirre, Rossetto, Simon and Levarlet attacked. Having built up a comfortable, Rossetto attacked on his own to take the win ahead of Levarlet and Madrazo while Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) won the sprint for 6th from the bunch that also contained overall winner Elmiger.

Result:

1. Stephane Rossetto 4.21.47

2. Guillaume Levarlet +0.04

3. Angel Madrazo

4. Gorka Izagirre +0.07

5. Julien Simon

6. Giovanni Visconti +0.19

7. Matthieu Ladagnous

8. Steven Tronet

9. Pim Ligthart

10. Yannick Martinez

General classification:

1. Martin Elmiger 18.06.53.

2. Yukiya Arashiro +0.03

3. Andrea Di Corrado +0.18

4. Sergey Lagutin +0.25

5. Yannick Martinez +0.28

6. Guillaume Bonnafond +0.31

7. Pierrick Fedrigo

8. Arnaud Gerard +0.38

9. Anthony Delaplace +0.40

10. Romain Lemarchand +0.43