Van der Breggen wins GP de Plouay

Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) has added the GP de Plouay-Lorient Agglomération Trophée WNT to an already impressive palmarès. When the World champion attacked on the first climb of the final lap, nobody could keep up with her.

On the final 12 kilometres, Van der Breggen defended her gap against a chasing trio and the peloton, finishing solo 11 seconds ahead of Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) who won the sprint for second place against Van der Breggen's teammate, European champion Amy Pieters.

“The climbs were following each other very quickly, making it a very hard race from the start,” said Van der Breggen. “We based our team tactics on that, trying to be in the front all the time to save as much energy as possible. The team was great today, keeping us in the front all the time. I felt good, and I like the first climb after the finish, so I tried something, and it worked out. My sprint is not the best one, so a solo is my biggest chance to win the race. And we had Amy in the group behind, so if it hadn’t worked out, she can still sprint. That’s a nice way of racing, knowing that there are more teammates who can win.”

The GP de Plouay was 128 km starting with six laps à 16.7 kilometres with the short Côte de Moulin and a rolling section afterwards, followed by the Côte du Minojenn de Calvaire and Côte de Ty Marrec that effectively form one climb. This was followed by two shorter laps of 13.9 km with the same climbs as well as the short Côte du Bois de Kerlucas. The finish line was 3.6 km from the top of the Ty Marrec climb.

The race largely stayed together for the first four laps, but the successive climbs took their toll. An acceleration by Nikola Nosková (Bigla) on the drag after the Côte du Moulin led to a front group of 11 riders including many, but not all, of the favourites. More riders bridged to the front on the Ty Marrec, and things came together again. A peloton of almost 50 riders crossed the finish line with three laps to go.

Again, it was Nosková who pushed the pace up the Côte du Moulin, leading to splits in the peloton and a front group of 19 riders including, among others, Van der Breggen, Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), Eugenia Bujak (BTC City Ljubljana), Clara Koppenburg (WNT-Rotor), Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo), and Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg).

The peloton came back to this front group in the descent as it started to rain. There were several attempts to get away on the Ty Marrec, but starting the penultimate lap, the peloton was not much smaller than one lap before.

Van der Breggen and Nosková set the pace on the Côte du Moulin, splitting the peloton. About 35 riders came to the Ty Marrec together, and there were attacks by Spratt, Marta Cavalli (Valcar Cylance), Janneke Ensing (WNT-Rotor), Eri Yonamine (Alé Cipollini), and Cordon-Ragot on the climb and the following drag. All those moves were closed down by Katie Hall (Boels Dolmans) or Van der Breggen herself until Laura Asencio (WNT-Rotor) jumped with 15 km to go.

The young Frenchwoman had a five-second gap going into the final lap, and Bigla lined up four riders to chase her down. Asencio was caught at the top of the Côte du Moulin, just as Van der Breggen launched her own attack. Amialiusik, Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini), and Spratt tried to keep up with the World champion, but Van der Breggen pulled away over the Côte du Bois de Kerlucas, increasing her advantage over the three chasers to 13 seconds with nine kilometres to go.

The peloton was 30 seconds behind, with Trek-Segafredo and Team Sunweb chasing hard to close the gap. They caught the chasing trio with six kilometres to go, but Van der Breggen held strong and defended a gap of 22 seconds on the Ty Marrec climb. Cavalli tried unsuccessfully to get away from the peloton, then Amialiusik made a move and got a gap. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Valcar Cylance) bridged to Amialiusik, but they did not get closer to Van der Breggen and were reeled in again just before the kilometre mark.

Van der Breggen could sit up on the finishing straight to celebrate her victory. Rivera outsprinted Pieters for second place, Cavalli finished fourth and takes over the lead in the UCI Women’s WorldTour U23 ranking. Despite not having raced in Plouay, Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) continues to lead the UCI Women’s WorldTour classification.

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