Image 1 of 8 Justin Jules (La Pomme-Marseille) beats Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R-La Mondiale (Image credit: AFP) Image 2 of 8 Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) nips Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R - La Mondiale) for the win (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 3 of 8 Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 4 of 8 Davide Malacarne (Europcar) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 5 of 8 Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) throws his bike to take the victory (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 6 of 8 Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille), Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R - La Mondiale) and Thomas Damuseau (Argos - Shimano) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 7 of 8 Danilo Napolitano (Accent Jobs - Wanty) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 8 of 8 Justin Jules (La Pomme-Marseille) (Image credit: AFP)

Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) sprinted to victory in the Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise, the first road race on European soil for the 2013 season. The 26-year-old Frenchman denied Samuel Dumoulin, making his debut for AG2R La Mondiale, a repeat victory in Marseille, while Thomas Damuseau (Team Argos-Shimano) rounded out the podium in third place.

The 148.1km European opener was dominated by an early two man escape comprised of Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise). The duo's advantage grew to more than seven minutes after 43km of racing, but Dumoulin's AG2R squad kept the break from becoming a runaway and gradually reduced the pair's lead.

Wallays led Vaubourzeix over each of the day's three categorised climbs to claim the mountains prize and when they reached the summit of the final ascent, the Julhan Les Bastides at 30km remaining, their lead had dropped inside of one minute with riders using the ascent as a springboard to cross the gap to the leaders.

Cédric Pineau (FDJ) and Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille) managed to make the junction and with 23km to the finish the front quartet led the peloton by 30 seconds.

Inside of 15km to go the break was neutralised, but the chase effort split the peloton. Sander Armee (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) then went out on the attack alone and with 7km to the finish he led a 20-man chase group by 20 seconds and the peloton by 55 seconds.

The Belgian's bid for victory came to naught, however, as the hard-charging peloton swept up first the chase group and then Armee with 3km to go, setting the stage for a field sprint finale.

NOTE:

Race winner Justin Jules is the son of French professional Pascal Jules, a stage winner at the 1984 Tour de France and teammate of Laurent Fignon. Pascal Jules died in a car crash in 1987 when Justin was only 13 months old. Justin's life was again touched by tragedy as he served a prison term for killing his stepfather in 2004, receiving a reduced sentence due to the circumstances of a family life disrupted by his stepfather's alcoholism.

Jules turned professional in 2011 at the age of 24 with French Continental team La Pomme Marseille, moved to French Continental squad Véranda Rideau-Super U for 2012 and then returned to La Pomme Marseille this season. His victory today is his second, and biggest, as a professional, with his first win earned at the opening stage of the Tour of Hainan during his debut professional season.

Full Results 1 Justin Jules (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 3:40:05 2 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 3 Thomas Damuseau (Fra) Team Argos-Shimano 4 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ 5 Sander Armee (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 6 Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 7 Maxime Vantomme (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 8 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Argos-Shimano 9 Björn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 10 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 11 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 12 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ 13 Marcel Wyss (Swi) IAM Cycling 14 Benjamin Giraud (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 15 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 16 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Sojasun 17 Rudy Molard (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 18 Ricardo Mestre (Por) Euskaltel-Euskadi 19 Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling 20 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Team Europcar 21 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Sojasun 22 Angelo Tulik (Fra) Team Europcar 23 Romain Lemarchand (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 24 Julien El Fares (Fra) Sojasun 25 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Sojasun 26 Ricardo Garcia Ambroa (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 27 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Team Europcar 28 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Argos-Shimano 29 Pieter Jacobs (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 30 Jerome Cousin (Fra) Team Europcar 31 Franck Vermeulen (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 32 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 33 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:04 34 Sébastien Delfosse (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 0:00:06 35 Julien Antomarchi (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 0:00:09 36 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Sojasun 0:00:14 37 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:16 38 Cédric Pineau (Fra) FDJ 0:00:18 39 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) FDJ 40 Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 0:01:02 41 Grégoire Tarride (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 0:01:04 42 Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 43 Aleksejs Saramotins (Lat) IAM Cycling 44 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:06 45 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 0:01:28 46 Clément Koretzky (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement 47 Steven Tronet (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 48 Jean-Marc Bideau (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement 49 Boris Zimine (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 0:01:31 50 Nicolas Vereecken (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction 51 Armindo Fonseca (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement 52 Yoann Paillot (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 53 Brian Bulgac (Ned) Lotto Belisol 54 Dirk Bellemakers (Ned) Lotto Belisol 55 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 56 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Team Europcar 57 Nikita Novikov (Rus) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 58 Francis De Greef (Bel) Lotto Belisol 59 Flavien Dassonville (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 60 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 61 Frederique Robert (Bel) Lotto Belisol 62 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Team Europcar 63 Tim Declercq (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 64 Théo Vimpere (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 65 José Gonçalves (Por) La Pomme Marseille 66 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 67 Patrick Schelling (Swi) IAM Cycling 68 Laurent Pichon (Fra) FDJ 69 Christophe Laborie (Fra) Sojasun 70 Florian Guillou (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement 71 Anthony Geslin (Fra) FDJ 72 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJ 73 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 74 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:02:34 75 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 76 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:02:51 77 Romain Sicard (Fra) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:03:18 78 Romain Bacon (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 0:03:42 79 Gael Malacarne (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement 80 Francois Parisien (Can) Team Argos-Shimano 0:03:45 81 Cyrille Patoux (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole 82 Niko Eeckhout (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction 83 Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 84 Alphonse Vermote (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction 85 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Accent Jobs-Wanty 86 Kurt Hovelynck (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 87 Sean Downey (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 88 Georg Preidler (Aut) Team Argos-Shimano 89 Jure Kocjan (Slo) Euskaltel-Euskadi 90 Bertjan Lindeman (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 91 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 92 Mark McNally (GBr) An Post-Chainreaction 93 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Team Argos-Shimano 94 Guillaume Faucon (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 95 Julien Simon (Fra) Sojasun 96 Koen Barbe (Bel) Crelan-Euphony 97 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar 0:04:39 98 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Team Europcar 99 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Accent Jobs-Wanty 0:04:54 100 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Lotto Belisol 0:05:10 101 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Accent Jobs-Wanty 0:07:07 102 Rudy Kowalski (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole HD Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Lotto Belisol HD Maarten Neyens (Bel) Lotto Belisol HD Benoit Jarrier (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement HD Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team DNF Julien Duval (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole DNF Steven Van Vooren (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction DNF Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Accent Jobs-Wanty DNF Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Accent Jobs-Wanty DNF Roy Jans (Bel) Accent Jobs-Wanty DNF Tim De Troyer (Bel) Accent Jobs-Wanty DNF Loïc Desriac (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole DNF Benjamin Verraes (Bel) Accent Jobs-Wanty DNF Kevin Lalouette (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole DNF Maxime Le Montagner (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole DNF Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Sojasun DNF Ronan McLaughlin (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction DNF Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi DNF Niels Wytinck (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction DNF Thomas Peterson (USA) Team Argos-Shimano DNF Marcel Aregger (Swi) IAM Cycling DNF Rémi Cusin (Fra) IAM Cycling DNF Thomas Rostollan (Fra) La Pomme Marseille DNF Nicolas Bazin (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 DNF Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) IAM Cycling DNF Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale DNF Sylvain Georges (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale DNF Steve Chainel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale DNF Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale DNF Jérémy Bescond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits DNF Arthur Van Overberghe (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise DNF Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits DNF Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Belisol DNF Benoit Drujon (Fra) BigMat-Auber 93 DNF Egidijus Juodvalkis (Ltu) Crelan-Euphony DNF Kevin Peeters (Bel) Crelan-Euphony DNF Adrian Saez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi DNF Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise DNF Benjamin Le Montagner (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement DNF Pierre-Luc Perrichon (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement DNF Gert Joeaar (Est) Cofidis, Solutions Credits

Mountain 1 - Petit Galibier 1 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 6 pts 2 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 4 3 Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 2

Mountain 2 - L'Espigoulier 1 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 6 pts 2 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 4 3 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 2

Mountain 3 - Julhan Les Bastides 1 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 6 pts 2 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 4 3 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 2

Mountains classification 1 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 18 pts 2 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 12 3 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4