Kevin Vauquelin surprises the sprinters and takes the stage 1 of Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var

Kevin Vauquelin won the first stage of Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var. The Team Arkéa Samsic rider managed to beat Neilson Powless of EF Education-EasyPost and Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ who completed the podium.

The inaugural stage of this year's edition of Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var started with a 5 riders breakaway mostly of local French teams. And Julien Bernard of Trek-Segafredo, former stage winner in this race who become the first wearer of mountains classification jersey, that were caught around 15 km to the finish.

On the last 11 km the peloton started the first of the tree small climbs of the stage, Six riders managed to escape the peloton launching a dangerous late stage breakaway. Among them were important names like Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Aurélien Paret-Peintre(AG2R Citroën Team), Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) and Kevin Vauquelin (Team Arkéa Samsic).

Vauquelin launched a powerful attack within the closing of the last kilometre that couldn't be closed by his breakaway companions Powless and Geniets, with this he managed to celebrate alone in the finish line achieving his first ever professional win and becoming the first leader of Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var.