Naesen nets first pro win in Poly Normandie

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Neo pro Oliver Naesen of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise topped the list of Belgian winners at La Polynormande as he put his name on the record book after Philippe Gilbert (2005), Andy Cappelle (2010) and Jan Ghyselinck (2014). He rode very smart as he exploited the superiority of Bretagne-Séché Environnement riders (Pierrick Fédrigo, Anthony Delaplace and Frédéric Brun) who just returned from the Tour de France. He also managed to trap two Europcar riders (Fabrice Jeandesbosz and Antoine Duchesne) who accompanied him on the breakaway.

"I'm super happy," Naesen told Cyclingnews at the finish. "Before my first pro season, I was hoping to win a race pretty early to take off the pressure but I've had to wait for a while. I've come 7th at the Tour of Belgium and 6th at the Tour of Luxemburg overall. I start every race with the winning mentality but it doesn't always happen like today.

'I rode away from the bunch in the second last lap with three riders from Bretagne and two from Europcar. We caught the breakaway very quickly and I knew I was going to win because they weren't taking me seriously. They had the numbers so I could stay on the reserve. I was scared of Fédrigo, I only knew him from watching him on TV but he was dropped."

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"I was lucid and stress free," said the 24 year old from Berlare in East Flanders who will take part in the Eneco Tour with ambitions next week. "In the finale, I tried to look for the second wheel. I follow Duchesne because I knew he was second here last year. With 300 metres to go, I rode him off. It's a great feeling."

Duchesne was the only member of the morning breakaway left at the front. Quentin Jaurégui (AG2R-La Mondiale), Romain Combaud (French army team), Thomas Rostollan (French national team), Ivan Balikyn (RusVelo) and Brun were away since the early part of the race. They got a four minutes lead over the bunch mostly led by Cofidis who tried to set up a sprint finish for Nacer Bouhanni but another batch of riders emerged in the last 20km.

"The whole day I believed that I was finally going to get my first pro win," Duchesne deplored. "My goal was that the breakaway wouldn't get caught but it happened with 10km to go."

"The Topsport guy was the fastest and the strongest," Jeandesbosz echoed.

Delaplace who won this race in 2011 looked even more devastated. "I'm disappointed," he said. "This is my home race. It's hard to finish fourth and fifth. Our priority was the French Cup but we faltered in the finale."

However, Fédrigo kept the lead of the individual French Cup with 151 points. Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and Bouhanni follow with 114 and 103 respectively. Bretagne-Séché Environnement increased their lead in the French Cup by teams with 109 points ahead of Auber 93 who has 86.

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