Bretagne Classic: Alex Aranburu takes WorldTour victory for Cofidis after decisive attack in final kilometres

In a dynamic and aggressive race, Alex Aranburu put in a decisive attack just inside the final 2km of the race to win the Bretagne Classic CIC in Plouay. The Cofidis rider jumped from a lead front group that formed after the breakaway was caught with six kilometres to go.

Alexander Kamp (Uno-X Mobility) gave chase solo but was not able to catch the Spaniard and took second, crossing the line four seconds later. Alessandro Borgo (Bahrain Victorious) was third, from the 11-rider front group.

After being kept on a leash of around a three-minute gap by Alpecin-Premier Tech, the early breakaway reformed as the riders tackled the three finishing circuits, while behind the Visma-Lease a Bike squad attacked multiple times but were not able to get away.

The numerous accelerations on the undulating course led to splits and chaos in the field as often happens in this race until ultimately the last breakaway rider was caught.

A select group of 11 riders sped away at the front. It included Aranburu and his teammate Dylan Teuns, Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United). With three kilometres to go, they had 16 seconds on the chasing field.

French star Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) went down in a multi-rider crash with 50 kilometres to go and abandoned the race.

How it unfolded

For its 95th edition, the Bretagne Classic reshaped its route, cutting 34 kilometres to 228.3km while retaining a demanding 3,663 metres of elevation gain on a rolling route centred around Plouay in Brittany. The race began with a 143km clockwise large loop north through Gouraec, Pontivy, Le Sourn and Saint-Barthélemy, leading to a 35km anti-clockwise loop before returning to Plouay for three 16.6km finishing circuits.

The finale brought several familiar challenges, including the return of the Ty Marrec climb, absent from the race since 2019. A succession of short climbs and descents followed, with the Rostervel ascent coming with nine kilometres to go. Five kilometres later, the riders faced the Côte de Lezot climb before the final push towards Kerscoulic and the finish.

Under cloudy skies, with intermittent rain, the early breakaway was initiated by Sjoerd Bax (Pinarello Q36.5), and he was soon joined by Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X Mobility) and Alexy Faure Prost (Picnic PostNL). The trio built up a gap of over three minutes in the first half of the race.

With 91 kilometres,, two riders, Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), bridged up, making it five off the front as the gap was down to 1:10 to the Alpecin-Premier Tech-led peloton.

The extra firepower increased the gap to 1:30, which was helped by a crash in the pack taking down a few riders with 86km to go.

Once the gap went down to under to one-minute mark with 63 km to go, Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked as Decathlon CMA CGM was taking over the pacemaking on a climb.

The accelerations caused a momentary split in the pack, and reduced the gap, leading to three riders jumping across the 24-second gap, and a chase group formed as the riders sped towards the end of the medium loop.

Visma continued to attack off the front, with more splits and reshuffling at the front as another crash took down multiple riders, including Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) with 50 km to go. After trying to continue, the French star put his bike down and walked into an ambulance.

The reformed break included Bax, Faure Prost, Hoelgaard, Herzog, Quinten Hermans (Pinarello Q36.5), Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarché) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis). Though Bax and Faure Prost would fall off the pace, leaving five riders off the front.

Crossing the finish line for the first time, seeing three laps to go, the six-rider break had 25 seconds on a first chase group with Rex and AJ August (Netcompany Ineos), and 41 seconds on the second chase, with the peloton further back after the crash.

The break still had 54 seconds on the 10-rider chase group that August tried to whittle down on the Ty Marrec climb and 1:24 on the peloton led by Alpecin-Premier Tech.

A lack of cooperation in the chase group slowed down their effort to catch the break, as NSN and EF Education-EasyPost put riders in the rotation in the peloton with 25km to go. Along with August and Rex, the chase group included Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United) and Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious).

With 22km to go, Visma’s Victor Campenaerts and Louis Barré attacked at the front of the peloton after they had caught the chase group, but though the accelerations stretched out the field, it all stayed together.

The breakaway of five of Slock, Herzog, Hoelgaard, Hermans, and Thomas had a 57-second gap as they started the third and final lap with 16.6km to go.

Attacks flew at the front of the peloton on a climb, with TotalEnergies’ Alexandre Delettre trying to launch Mathieu Burgaudeau, and Barré continuing his aggressive racing as the group formed and reformed.

Inside of six kilometres to go, the break was caught on a climb, as more riders tried to escape, causing another split at the front. With three kilometres to go, the selection had been made at the front.

Results

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