Tour du Finistère: Aubin Sparfel holds off reduced group sprint to claim victory

Aubin Sparfel (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) crossed the line by a whisker ahead of a reduced peloton on an uphill sprint to take the victory at the 39th Tour du Finistère Pays de Quimper on Friday.

The 19-year-old followed a late-race attack by Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) at the base of the final climb and then sprinted to take the win as Askey was passed by the reduced sprint.

Bastien Tronchon crossed the line in second place giving Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale an 1-2 finish in Quimper, while Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) took third on the day.

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Tour du Finistère Pays de Quimper offered the peloton a 168.1km race in and around Quimper, as part of the Coupe de France. The route included five intermediate sprints at the top of short, punchy ascents on the course, and the peloton faced back-to-back smaller climbs all the way into the smaller local circuits with an uphill to the finish line.

Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies), Leander Van Hautegem (Wagner Bazin WB), Paul Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hôtels Continentale) and Justin Ducret (CIC-U-Nantes) were the four early breakaway riders who distanced themselves and built a lead of nearly four minutes.

Euskaltel-Euskadi, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and Israel-Premier Tech did the lion's share of pace-setting at the front of the field to reduce the gap to two minutes in the second half of the race.

But the painfully steep climbs made it difficult for the four breakaway riders to form a rhythm, and Thierry and Ducret were distanced with 58km to go over the 13% Côte de Locronan, and they were caught by the field over the next ten kilometres.

Gachignard and Van Hautegem continued on but with a slim lead over lone chaser Max van der Meulen (Bahrain Victorious), but ultimately all were caught by the field with 16km to go.

Van der Meulen's teammate Jakob Omrzel countered with a late-race attack in the final three kilometres, but a reduced field was back together for the finale as French teams Groupama-FDJ, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Cofidis, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale set off a fire of attacks in the finale 1.5km. 

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