Ghyselinck claims first career win

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Belgium's Jan Ghyselinck of Wanty-Groupe Gobert claimed the first pro victory of his career at the age of 26 in the French cup race La Polynormande organized by exiting Tour de France speaker Daniel Mangeas in his village of Saint-Martin-de-Landelles. He outsprinted Canadian neo pro Antoine Duchesne who delivered his first result for Europcar.

With 5km to go, both came out of a group of 14 escapees formed after only 25km of racing with Arnaud Courteille (FDJ.fr), Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille), Sébastien Delfosse (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Steve Chainel and Damien Gaudin (AG2R-La Mondiale), Quentin Jaurégui (Roubaix-Lille métropole), Anthony Delaplace and Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Romain Hardy (Cofidis), Yann Guyot (French national team), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Stéphane Rossetto (BigMat-Auber 93).

"It's wonderful to win here!", reacted Ghyselinck who was tipped as a future champion when he joined HTC-Columbia as a neo pro at the same time as Tejay van Garderen after winning the U23 Tour of Flanders in 2009. "I was a domestique in a big team", he remembered of his first experience. "Then I joined Cofidis where the atmosphere wasn't great. I hope this victory to be a restart for my career. I didn't feel good at the beginning of the race today. At some stage I was reported to being dropped from the front group but I was only 80 meters behind. When I attacked with 5 or 6km to go, I was feeling much better."

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Ghyselinck enjoyed being reinforced by Canadian rouleur Duchesne who helped him staying away. It was also a first pro result for the Europcar recruit who eyes at the World Tour races at home in September, particularly the GP Québec whose course passes right in front of his apartment. "I'm really happy to get this first result this year", Duchesne told Cyclingnews. "I hadn't raced for a while and I felt good at the Tour de Wallonie last week so I came here with ambitions. I felt I was among the strongest in the breakaway. But I tried to ride conservative and not do useless efforts. I've got no regret because Jan was superior when he rode me off with 500 meters to go. It had been a very demanding race and everyone was cooked."

Frustration was more obvious in the case of third placed Jaurégui who would have loved to sprint for first place as he easily won the contest for third. "The first two have been the smartest", said the cyclo-crossman from the north of France. "Many riders have tried to go. It was a question of not missing the right move. I'm not far from a top result and I confirm that I can do well in difficult French cup races."

No change occurred in the French cup standings with Julien Simon of Cofidis remaining in first place.

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