Lander Loockx (Unibet Tietema Rockets) saw off the WorldTour teams to secure the first pro win of his career from a sprint of five in Paris-Camembert.
On a fraught, ultra-fast race with a hilly finale which saw the peloton split into various segments, the Belgian was part of a small group that clipped away over the Cat.3 Côte de Champeaux, some 30 kilometres from the line.
Despite multiple attacks, the front break of five managed came into the finish with nearly a minute's advantage, with Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in second, and Louis Barré (Intermarché Wanty) in third.
This is the second time in a French one-day race that Unibet Tietema Rockets have seen off the WorldTour teams. Last week Slovakian National Champion Lukáš Kubiš claimed the team's first win of the season in a rain-soaked Cholet Agglo Tour.
An early attack by Carter Guichard (Nice Metropole Côte d'Azur) was joined by Féderico Biagini (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Jelle Vermoote (Wagner-Bazin-WB), Declan (Novo Nordisk) and Corentin Devroute (CIC-U-Nantes) and looked set to be the break of the day. However, just when their gap had risen to 1:30, the peloton split behind and a front group of 65 riders quickly captured the quintet of race leaders.
In a fractured, fast-moving race, the lead group then split into three, allowing roughly 35 riders to drive clear of their closest pursuers. By the time the race crossed the finish line in Livarot for the first time, with 66 kilometres to go, the leaders had collaborated enough to build their gap on a large number of chasers to approximately a minute's advantage. On a local circuit featuring multiple short, punchy climbs, though, there was no guarantee such a big break could or would remain intact.
Finally following multiple attacks a second group closed in, over the Cat.3 Côte de Champeaux a strong-looking move featuring Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale duo Léo Bisiaux and Paul Seixas, Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), Stian Edvardsen-Fredheim (Uno-X Mobility), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hôtels) and Lander Loockx (Unibet Tietema Rockets) opened up a promising gap. Groupama-FDJ, one of the two WorldTour teams - the other being Cofidis - not represented, began working behind, and the high pace meant Edvardsen-Fredheim was quickly dropped, leaving five riders ahead with 30 kilometres to go.
Barré was unlucky enough to suffer a mechanical but managed to regain contact, and as the kilometres clicked down it became increasingly clear the win was going to be for one of the five in the break. Eventually Seixas and Barré went clear, enough to earn Seixas the definitive hold on the mountains classification, but they were sucked back in.
Come the last kilometre, Loockx was able to deliver a searing acceleration that allowed him to reach the finish a good bike length clear, and the rider best-known for his cyclocross racing was able to capture his first pro road win, not to mention 72 kilograms - the weight of the winner - in Camembert cheese.
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