Paris-Camembert: Benoit Cosnefroy charges to sprint victory

Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) scored his third win of the 2024 season at the hilly one-day race Paris-Camembert.

The Frenchman, who won a stage and the overall at the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes last month, struck out late in the 205.6km race to beat Clément Venturini (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Alexandre Delettre (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93) and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group Bardiani-CSF Faizanè) to the line from a reduced six-man lead group. 

Cosnefroy, one of the leaders of the new-look Decathlon AG2R squad, had previously won the 1.1-rated race in 2019 with an 800-metre solo effort at the finish.

The fight for the win at the race, which had earlier been neutralised due to a mass crash, began when breakaway rider Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was caught on the day's final hill after 45km on the attack.

The Butte des Fondits (1km at 9.7%) saw Costiou brought back as a select group – including the podium trio and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) – split away off the front on the steep gradients 10km from the line.

After the short, flat run to the finish in Livarot, 20km north of Camembert, it was Cosnefroy who came out on top to claim the 18th victory of his career and Decathlon AG2R's seventh of 2024. Compatriots Venturini and Delettre completed the podium with Marcellusi in fourth.

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