Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var: Tim Wellens wins queen stage and goes into the final day in pole position
Cycling
Lotto Soudal have made it two wins in two days as they conquered the queen stage into La Turbie with a sprint by Tim Wellens. He now leads the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var into the final hilly day as he caught up with Nairo Quintana in the final kilometers and posteriorly outsprinted the Colombian.
The breakaway that went early on was composed of Lilian Calmejane (AG2R Citroën Team) Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Lewis Askey (Groupama - FDJ), Jonathan Couanon and Maxime Urruty (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur). Lotto Soudal worked throughout the day to keep the gap small and managed to do so indeed, with the breakaway caught before the final climb which saw a reduced peloton go up the Col d'Éze.
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The peloton hit the very tough slopes of the climb with AG2R pushing the pace and very early on Nairo Quintana attacked the group going solo. Guillaume Martin briefly jumped across the gap, but the Colombian was the strongest up the climb and built a solid gap into the summit. He was chased however by Tim Wellens who kept the gap stable at around 10 seconds with 6 kilometers to go and then in the favourable flat roads managed to reel Quintana in.
The duo worked together to the line but the fight was never balanced, as Wellens easily outsprinted Quintana to the line taking his second win of the season, and the second out of two for Lotto Soudal in the race.
Valentin Madouas sprinted to third place in the chasing group that came home in bits, 25 seconds behind.
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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- yeah... you're right...PogiSloFans04-11-2026
- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
- He will be lol, but he can still win on the climbs hahaawp04-11-2026
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- He's not going to win the TdF. Maybe if they make every single stage a TT he could win. But I still believe Tadej would just sharpen his TT skills and win.mij04-11-2026
- You beat me to it. Should he make a full recovery (likely) and go light early in the year. One, two, three. Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. Should he be on a Feel-Like-He's-Fixin'-to-Die High.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- The deciding factor may be the (TBD) number of (any type of) kilometers without Pogacar.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- Unexplained chronic fatigue is an all too common bitch. The hard to find definitive answer may lie buried in gut mechanisms. A mystery of the deep.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- It's weird to say Evenepoel would be making a "serious mistake by adding the 2027 Giro d'Italia to his calendar, warning that such a decision could even be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his ability to win the Tour de France." It may well be a mistake but with so many commentators (of all sorts) continuously claiming almost everything Remco does as being a mistake, almost nobody should care what the pundits and the disparagers should say. His team may not want him to do the Giro, and that matters. But it's possibly or probably up to Remco to decide and it may not have to be decided on until a month or so ahead of the race. Yes , Remco is inconsistent much like the majority of the best riders but he's enjoying a period of not having been recently injured (or sick). Whatever he does he need not be concerned with critics who will second guess any perceived failure no matter what. I suspect he will have enough other races on his schedule so he won't be considering it. But the worst reason to not race it is because of what some will say - humorous that be.Yepperoni04-11-2026
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🏅🇧🇪 Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) gana la Etapa 2 del Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var 2022 🇫🇷 #TDHV22 #Tour0683 #Ciclismo #Noticiclismo
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