Today Stephen Cummings (BMC) confirmed his exceptional early-season form when he narrowly defended his overall lead in the Tour Mediteraneen to secure his first-ever win in a stage race. Having shown glimpses of his current strength in past, the Brit claims that bad luck has made him unable to capitalize fully on his form in the past.
 

BMC Racing Team's Stephen Cummings captured the overall title of the Tour Méditerranéen Sunday by finishing fourth on the summit finish of Mont Faron. Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) soloed to win the stage, five seconds ahead of Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Seche Environnement). But Cummings arrived at the finish 11 seconds after Péraud, enough time to secure the overall by four seconds over Péraud.

"It was so close, I went way over my limit," Cummings said. "I just did my best and luckily it was good enough. I thought I could do a good GC (general classification), but was looking more to the time trial and taking things day-by-day. But I kept staying in the front and then the time trial was great. So today was like the icing on the cake."

Cummings rode into the overall lead of the four-day, five-stage race by winning Saturday's 18.2-kilometer individual time trial to take a four-second lead over Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory Racing) and 10 seconds over Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) into the 192.7-km final stage.

"It was great for everything to fall into place," Cummings said. "In the past, I have had form like this – or better – and something has gone wrong: I have had a crash or been sick. It has never come out properly. So it is nice to have it work out."
 

"It was a big fight today," he added to Directvelo. "I was not particularly focused on Jean-Christophe Peraud or any other rider. I knew that I couldn't follow the best climbers, I am too heavy for that. So I decided to focus on my own race. I wanted to ride regularly, with a fast tempo. With two kilometres to go, I decided to go full gas and give it everything I could. I am not really surprised by the Mont Faron. I knew I was capable of doing this.

"It is always nice to win a race for complete riders, with a time trial and hard stages. For years, I have known that I was capable of such performances but in recent years I have been hampered by different crashes and physical problems. Several times I got sick. It's nice to find this level now, especially in ayear when the management has decided to give me an important role in several stage races with a time trial. This motivates me even more."

The win has given Cummings taste for more even if his next race will see him return to a domestique role.

"My next races will be the Tour du Haut-Var and Paris-Nice," he said. " There will be no time trial in the Paris-Nice but I still like this race which has a very strong line-up. In France, I will also do the Circuit de la Sarthe. I will now try to keep this high level even though I will mostly be in a race like the Tour du Haut-Var to support our leader, Cadel Evans." 

Helping Cummings score the BMC Racing Team's fifth win of the season was Ben Hermans – who himself finished ninth overall – Yannick Eijssen, Norwegian national road champion Thor Hushovd, Klaas Lodewyck, Amaël Moinard, Taylor Phinney and Larry Warbasse. The BMC Racing Team made sure the race was back together by the base of the final climb by chasing down a four-man breakaway that led by six minutes at one point.

Sport Director Yvon Ledanois said the team's performance – which included a runner-up finish by Hushovd in Saturday morning's road race – was "perfect" from start to finish.

"I think today is one big victory for the team," he said. "It was an important victory for Steve and for the team. Now I think all the guys are 100 percent ready for the next races: for Tirreno-Adriatico, for Paris-Nice and for Milan-San Remo. This proves the work we did was important – both the training camp in Denia (Spain) and their training at home."

The win was Cummings' first stage race victory in 10 seasons as a professional and added to his runner-up finish overall (to Phinney) at the Dubai Tour earlier this month.