Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar) narrowly edged out Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) at the line for his first victory of the season at Tour du Finistère Pays de Quimper.
Clément Venturini (Unibet Rose Rockets) completed the podium as his acceleration with more than 500 metres to go proved too long and he went third, his teammate Lander Loockx taking fourth.
An original breakaway of six riders in the opening kilometres dwindled to just two - Clément Davy (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) and Leandre Huck (Van Rysel Roubaix) - with one lap of a finishing circuit, but it all came back for a final bunch sprint with 7.5km remaining.
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The profile of the 156.3km route through Brittany resembled a saw with a relentless series of climbs, though none categorised, for the 40th edition of the French one-day race. Four intermediate sprint lines rewarded riders who escaped in the breakaway, beginning with Côte de la Roche de Feu just 22km from the start.
Six riders made the main move in the first 5km - Davy, Huck, Nate Pringle (Decathlon CMA CGM Development), Thomas Champion (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), and Nu Colombia duo Juan Diego Alba and Rodrigo Contreras.
Alba was the first passenger dispatched from the lead group, rolling back towards the peloton, which was nearly three minutes back, before the Côte de Locronan at the half-way point.
The leading quintet held strong and passed the finish line for the first time with 59km to go, a circuit of 15.7km to be completed six times. Alba still rode in no-man's land, two minutes behind, while the peloton was close to reeling him back into their fold for the chase.
Completing the first circuit, the breakaway's gap was sliced to 1:28 by the peloton. Two riders had accelerated in the chase to connect, Valentin Darbellay (Elite Fondations Cycling) and Carter Guichard (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur), with Darbellay then riding with Contreras, who had dropped from the front, on the fourth lap. However, the peloton was by then bearing down on catching everyone, only 30 seconds left for a full catch.
Just before the penultimate lap began, Davy shot away for a solo flyer. He was joined by Huck and the French duo carved out a 20-second gap on what was left of the breakaway.
Once the lead pair were on a flatter section of the final circuit, the peloton quickened the pace and seized both riders with 7.5km to go, setting up the final 2km uphill battle to settle accounts in Quimper.
Unibet Rose Rockets, Van Rysel Roubaix, Cofidis and TotalEnergies moved to the front on the climb. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) went to the front and launched an attack for Jenthe Biermans on the final kilometre, with Venturini launching from behind him with 700 metres to go, but Barrenetxea blasted from the reduced front group and pulled off his first win of the season.
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