Dumoulin claims GP de Plumilec-Morbihan

Samuel Dumoulin reversed the negative feelings of AG2R-La Mondiale with a sprint victory in the Grand Prix of Plumelec. The win comes a week after the team run by his father-in-law Vincent Lavenu announced its withdrawal from the Criterium du Dauphiné due to the rules of the MPCC (Movement for a Credible Cycling) following the positive dope test of Sylvain Georges for heptaminol at the Giro d'Italia. The latter seduced the Pro Team from the French Alps when he won in Plumelec two years ago while riding for BigMat-Auber 93.

"This win comes at the right time for AG2R which is having a bad time," Dumoulin said at the finishing line. "We also hadn't won much so far this year [only four races with Dumoulin himself in stage 5 of the Etoile de Bessèges, Jean-Christophe Péraud in stage 4 of the Tour Méditerranéen, Blel Kadri at Roma Maxima and Maxime Bouet in stage 1 of the Giro del Trentino]. There are some affairs but cycling is a beautiful sport and we do it the best way we can."

At the top of the Cadoudal hill where Bernard Hinault claimed the prologue of the 1985 Tour de France, Dumoulin outsprinted Anthony Geslin of FDJ and Sojasun's Julien Simon who won this race last year ahead of Dumoulin. "I had the experience of having finished second and third here previously," Dumoulin noted. "For me, Plumelec is the nicest of the French cup races because of the environment and the big crowd.

"Many people wished me to win today and, luckily, my team believed in me more than I did myself. We were the first team in action behind the breakaway [formed of Jean-Albert Carnevali of Vérandas Willems, César Bihel from Differdange and BigMat-Auber 93's Théo Vimpère who got more than ten minutes lead]. In the last climb, I believed so little in my capacities of winning that I never looked back and it paid off."

"With 300 metres to go, Simon and Matthieu Ladagnous touched each other and were close to falling down," Geslin described. "I was following Simon, that's why I started sprinting a bit later than Dumoulin. Then we were at the same speed. It's always a disappointment to come second but there are many more legs of the French cup, starting with the Boucles de l'Aulne tomorrow. Now that I'm leading [with 113 points ahead of Dumoulin with 10], the French cup becomes an objective. It's going to be an interesting duel with Dumoulin but what I'll firstly try is to win races."

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