Paul Lapeira takes first victory as French national champion at La Polynormande

Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) delivered a decisive win from a three-man attack in the final kilometres of La Polynormande.

The French national champion beat Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto Dstny) and Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ) in the final sprint, after Lapeira attacked the remnants of the day’s main breakaway within the final 8km of the northern French race.

A breakaway formed early in the 167km race containing Eenkhoorn, Lapeira, Rolland, Liam Slock (Lotto Dstny),  Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa Samsic), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa Samsic), Maximilien Juillard (Van Rysel - Roubaix), Jean-Louis Le Ny (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) and Pierre Henry Basset (CIC U Nantes Atlantique).

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The breakaway rode solidly through the day and sat on a two-minute gap to the main peloton with 40km of racing remaining. Within the final 20km it was clear that the win would come from this group, with only a brief bridging effort of five riders – Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto Dstny), Brent Van Moer (Lotto Dstny), Matis Louvel (Arkéa Samsic), Axel Zingle (Cofidis), Alexandre Delettre (St. Michel–Mavic–Auber93) – threatening to upset their lead.

Lapeira’s attack at 8km remaining tore apart the remnants of the original breakaway, with only Eenkhoorn able to follow.

The two were joined by Rolland. With fellow Lotto Dstny rider Liam Slock in the small pursuing group, Eenkhoorn was able to sit on the wheels and put pressure on the two French riders.

However, Lapeira opened his sprint in the final hundred metres and rode clear of the Belgian Lotto Dstny rider to take the race win.

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