The final stage of the Route du Sud was not expected to produce any major changes in the overall standings but Kanstantsin Siutsou was not content with a 7th place finish in the mountainous race. The Belarusian scored important bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint to move into 4th in the final GC.
Kanstantsin Siutsou produced a clever ride to elevate himself to fourth place overall on the final stage of the Route du Sud.
The Belarusian picked up valuable bonus seconds during the day to jump three places up the leaderboard and cap a solid race for the team, narrowly missing a podium finish by four seconds.
The race marked a breakthrough performance for Ian Boswell who backed up the experienced Siutsou superbly across a tough and sweltering three days, eventually finishing ninth overall.
Josh Edmondson produced a gutsy move of his own and was caught within sight of the finishing line after jumping clear of the peloton late on.
The young Brit bridged across a sizeable gap along with Adriano Malori (Movistar) to chase down Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) on the run into the finish in Castres.
But, with the peloton fast approaching, Malori attacked inside 3km to go and managed to hold off the chasing pack to take the win, with Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille) edging out Maxime Daniel (AG2R-La Mondiale) in the bunch sprint for the final podium places.
As the race came to a close Chris Sutton was in amongst the sprint action as he finished eighth in the final bunch kick.
Dario Cataldo did not start the stage after trying to shake off illness for much of the race, while Edvald Boasson Hagen also didn't complete the stage as he continues his racing comeback.
Sports Director Kurt-Asle Arvesen was pleased with how the team rode on the final day.
"It was a smart move from Kosta to take back those seconds," he said. "He got a nice lead-out from the team and Bernie (Eisel) took him to the line.
"Josh and Malori went across to Arashiro who had been out there the whole did. Josh did a good ride. We thought for a while they could stay away but Malori attacked and just made it stick. But it was good to see Josh going for it, especially on a tough stage like this.
"It's also good to see Ian up there and securing a top 10 overall. CJ was up there in the sprint today too but just got a bit swamped in the end. All in all it was a good week for the team."
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