Ladagnous sprints to La Poly Normande victory

Matthieu Ladagnous quickly overcame the disappointment of his non-selection for the Tour de France by continuing Française des Jeux's recent dominance of the La Poly Normande. After finishing fourth overall in the Tour de Wallonie, Ladagnous won the French Cup race organised by the commentator of the Tour de France, Daniel Mangeas, in his Normand village of Saint-Martin-de-Landelles on Sunday.

Following the successes of his teammates Arnaud Gérard (in 2008) and Benoît Vaugrenard (2007), Ladagnous finished first in an unusual bunch sprint and shared the podium with his Australian companion Wesley Sulzberger who placed third.

"When I came here I hoped for a breakaway," Ladagnous said. "I thought it was over when the front group had a seven-minute lead. I didn't feel good with 30 kilometres to go. At the end, it wasn't a typical bunch sprint. Everybody was tired. We all sprinted without a real strategy."

Sulzberger was on his wheel but also didn't have the speed for the finale, something that only Stefan van Dijk (Verandas Willems) had. "I was the strongest, but I started sprinting too late," said van Dijk.

Sulzberger was delighted to accompany Ladagnous to the podium. "It was flat out at the end but I'm happy to see the form coming back for Paris-Corrèze, which was my first race with Française des Jeux one year ago. I have big ambitions there," the Tasmanian said.

Ladagnous, who emerged as one of the most promising riders after winning the Four Days of Dunkirk two years ago, was surprisingly left out of the Tour de France team by the Française des Jeux management. "I was disappointed to learn it from Marc Madiot on the eve of the French championship," the rider from Pau said. "I watched it and there were many opportunities for a rider like me, but it's not the end of the world. There will be other Tours for me I hope and there are other interesting races as well. Today is a good example that there is a life as a bike rider after the Tour de France."

A nine-man breakaway took shape after only five kilometres of racing in the outskirts of Avranches where Bradley McGee won stage 7 of the 2002 Tour de France. It included Jocelyn Bar (Française des Jeux), Pierre Rolland (Bbox-Bouygues Telecom), René Mandri (AG2R La Mondiale), Benjamin Giraud (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne), Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne-Schuller), Anthony Delaplace (Besson Chaussures-Sojasun), Diego Tamayo (Carmiooro - A-Style), James Vanlandschoot (Verandas Willems) and Loïc Desriac (French National Team).

The riders in the break were not taken very seriously because many of them were trainees (Bar, Giraud and Delaplace), amateur (Desriac) and members of Continental teams, so they were able to extend their lead to 7:40 over the peloton. Eventually Cofidis took up the chase, not trusting Giraud's ability to win, otherwise the peloton would likely have never brought back the escapees.

Utilizing his form from the Tour de France, Rolland tried to go solo but his escape attempt was unsuccessful. Tamayo, Delpech and Delaplace, who was doing his first pro race in the same village of Saint-Martin-de-Landelles where he won the U17 race only four years ago, attacked their breakaway companions but this move, too, did not succeed. The peloton absorbed all of the riders from the break with 10 kilometres remaining to the finish and the teams of the sprinters prepared for a field sprint to decide the race.

Anthony Geslin (Française des Jeux) and the leader of the French Cup Jimmy Casper (Besson Chaussures-Sojasun) were among the riders who tried to avoid a bunch sprint with attacks in the closing kilometres, but each effort was neutralised by the peloton.

Matthieu Ladagnous (Française des Jeux) led-out the sprint from 300 metres with teammate Wesley Sulzberger on his wheel. Stefan van Dijk (Verandas Willems) almost managed to overtake both Française des Jeux riders, but the photo-finish confirmed Ladagnous as the winner.