Bretagne Classic: Arnaud De Lie sprints to victory in Plouay

Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) timed his sprint perfectly to win the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France 2025 in Plouay ahead of Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Weather conditions that ran the gamut from violent rain to wind and ultimately to sunny skies tested the riders on a dynamic day of racing. Multiple break attempts peppered the front, but in the end, a 70-rider peloton raced downhill towards the finish line to an unexpected bunch sprint.

Kooij accelerated first with De Lie in his wheel, using the slipstream to come around for the victory while Jeannière came from further back and overtook Kooij just before the line.

A dangerous four-rider move which included Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty) and 2023 winner Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) made its way off the front with 12km to go. But the lack of cooperation and a determined chase by the peloton doomed the move, with the speeding pack reeling them in just 1.1 km from the finish.

"It's always a difficult sprint here in Plouay, and the timing today was just perfect. I'm really happy to win here, it’s one of my favorite races on the calendar. So yeah, I'm just happy, and, thank you to my teammates for the work all the day," De Lie said after his win.

"The previous years, I did maybe too much in the race, so today the plan was to ride smart and just follow the big move in the climb. And for the tactical part, [it] was more to follow the big group. My timing was just perfect. Today, I followed the wheel of Olav Kooij, and I did it."

After a difficult season, De Lie has finally seen success in August, starting with a stage win and overall victory at the Renewi Tour and now the one-day French WorldTour race in Brittany. He also finished second at the ADAC Cyclassics.

"The last three WorldTour races, I have always been on the podium or the victory, so just a dream at this moment. So I enjoy every moment, and it's a crazy end of year for me."

How it unfolded

In its 94th edition, the 261.7km course delivered its usual challenging course with 4,750 metres of elevation gain centred around Plouay in Brittany.

The peloton finished its race on the Plouay circuit, done 1.5 times, with the Rostervel climb 9km from the finish. The legendary Lezot climb was the penultimate obstacle to overcome 4km from the finish before the short climb to Kerscoulic.

The first half of the race saw an early breakaway of five riders, which included Óscar Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), and Iker Montegi and Andoni Lopez de Abetxuko (both Euskaltel-Euskadi), build a lead of up to five minutes over the peloton. Though Lopez de Abetxuko lost contact, the move continued before being caught inside of 90 km, leading to a series of attacks.

As a short and violent downpour hit, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike), Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) and Montegi went on the attack with Fabian Weiss (Tudor) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quickstep) bridging up, but the peloton chased hard to bring them back with 94km to go. More attacks quickly followed, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma–Lease a Bike especially aggressive at the front. Their efforts briefly split the bunch, but a regrouping occurred as the pace eased with 88km to go.

Using the narrow roads winding through a small village, Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-Easypost) attacked with 73km to go, and quickly established a gap as the peloton spread across the road to stop any other riders from making their way across to the lone attacker.

After gaining a maximum lead of 1:45 with 64km to go, Lotto took control of the peloton to keep the gap hovering around the one-minute mark. Inside of 50km to go, Tudor, TotalEnergies and Red Bull–Bora-Hansgrohe squads moved en masse to the front of the peloton, still surprisingly large in number.

The next phase of racing was ignited by Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) with a massive acceleration, but he was quickly brought back by the Tudor team. UAE’s Tim Wellens put the hammer down at the front of the stretched-out field, shelling riders off the back, as the gap to Asgreen quickly tumbled down until the Dane was reabsorbed with 35km to go.

Jostling for position caused a few brief splits on the Côte de Marta, a short kicker with 27km to go, leading to more attacks with eight riders managing to escape. Once again, McNulty was in the move in addition to Mauro Schmid, Ewen Costiou (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Alexandre Delettre (Totalenergies), Simone Velasco (XDS Astana), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech). But, once again, the move would be reeled back in 8km later.

Attacks continued at the front, causing splits in the peloton with Madouas getting a small gap inside of 13km to go. He would soon be joined by McNulty, Van Gils and Barré. The quartet established a maximum gap of 27 seconds before Barré attacked at the bottom of the Côte de Lezot with 5km to go.

But the peloton, with Cofidis and Visma at the front, would not let the break go, leading to the bunch sprint in Plouay.

Results

Results powered by FirstCycling