Tour Mediterraneen stage win for Tiernan-Locke

Tiernan-Locke, 27, launched a late attack to win ahead of Belarussian Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-Big Mat) and Frenchman Sebastien Chavanel (Europcar).

Organisers shortened the stage to 132.8 kilometers because of freezing weather conditions across France, leaving out key category climbs on the Col des Portes and Col du Grand Sambuc.

The tour opener was animated from the start when ten riders broke away from the peloton, but it was French rider Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille) who persisted to build up a solo lead of 7 minutes 30 seconds before AG2R, FDJ and Europcar combined to pull him back.

Vaubourzeix was caught eight kilometers from the finish.

It was while the sprinters teams were preparing for a final assault at the finish that Tiernan-Locke, who is known as a climber after winning the King of the Mountain jersey at the 2011 Tour of Britain, took his chance on the rising finish to steal the win and record the biggest victory of his career.

"Rene [Mandri] rode for 10km in the wind for me towards the end and kept me in a great position as we went over the hill around 5km to the line,"said Tiernan-Locke. "I dropped back a little bit on the descent, but came back towards the front. I didn't really attack, but just rode them off my wheel. I wasn't sure if I'd won, so didn't go for a big celebration."

The second stage will run 136km from Salon de Provence to Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhone) with three laps around Les Baux de Provence.

Stage 1 and general classification: 135km, Pertuis to Meyreuil.

1 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (GBr) Endura 3:21:03
2 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-Big Mat
3 Sebastien Chavanel (Fra) Europcar
4 Raymond Kreder (Ned) Garmin-Barracuda
5 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Spidertech Powered By C10
6 Maxim Iglinsky (Kaz) Astana
7 Sebastien Turgot (Fra) Europcar
8 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana
9 Francesco Ginanni (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
10 Romain Hardy (Fra) Bretagne-Schuller