The third and final day at Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var saw the peloton faced with the queen stage, that included several climbs jam-packed into the 130 kilometre long parcours. The stage was more front loaded though, with the riders immediately tackling the tough Col d’Èze climb straight out of the neutral zone and as expected it was a blisteringly fast start.
After some good positioning work by the team, Romain Bardet made his way into a group of six, which then swelled to ten, and although they built up a 45 second gap at one point, a relentless chase eventually saw them brought back and a counter attack go clear. Henri Vandenabeele and Marco Brenner offered more early support, before Max Poole took over as the race headed towards the finale, once again positioning Bardet at the front as the race hit the last ascent in the closing ten kilometres. Following the moves, one lone attacker managed to escape the clutches of the bunch and hold on for the win while behind Bardet showed a good turn of speed to take fourth place.
