Cappelle powers to Polynormandie win

Andy Cappelle from the continental Belgian team Verandas Willems managed to beat riders who were highly motivated to win the French cup race La Polynormande organised by the famous race commentator Daniel Mangeas in his village of Saint-Martin-de-Landelles.

In the final front group and fresh from the Tour de France, Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Sébastien Minard (Cofidis) and Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ) even missed the top three behind runners up Jérémie Galland and Romain Hardy from the local teams Saur-Sojasun and Bretagne-Schuller.

Cappelle attacked several times at the end and the right one was with 800 metres to go. "I think the finale was to my advantage," the 31-year-old from De Panne told Cyclingnews. "I love France and French races suit me. This is my nicest victory because it's at category 1 level. I think the Tour de France riders were mentally tired after three weeks of hard racing every day. I also believe they have watched each other at the end because it was a French cup race."

The French riders denied any such attitude. Hardy, 21, had a different explanation: "I've not believed enough in my capacities to win. I should have taken more initiative at the end. It's disappointing. I'm place regularly, but I'm bitter about not winning," said the neo-pro from Bretagne-Schuller who was fourth in the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia last week.

A breakaway group was formed in the early part of the race. 22 riders opened the road: Sandy Casar and Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ), Stéphane Augé, Sébastien Minard, Tristan Valentin and Yoann Bagot (Cofidis), Yuriy Trofimov (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Julien Bérard and Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet), Jimmy Casper, Anthony Delaplace and Jérémie Galland (Saud-Sojasun), Romain Lemarchard and Nadir Haddou (BigMat-Auber 93), Mathieu Boulo (Roubaix-Lille-Métropole), Romain Hardy, Sébastien Duret and Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne-Schuller), Andy Capelle and Gregory Habeaux (Vérandas Willems), and Edouard Louyest (French national team).

As the peloton was coming closer with 50 kilometres to go, Augé, Delaplace and Scheirlinckx gave a new start to the breakaway. Once they got caught, a counter attack led by Vaugrenard took shape. The riders who did the Tour de France had an advantage over those who just resumed racing after a break. Six riders accompanied Vaugrenard: Minard, Mondory, Galland, Capelle, Hardy and Delpech.

Cappelle eventually took Verandas Willems' revenge after the narrowly missed win by Stefan van Dijk who was second to Matthieu Ladagnous by just a centimetre one year ago. He rejoined on the record book at the race of his current directeur sportif Lucien van Impe who came first in 1981 but La Polynormande was an after Tour criterium at the time.

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