Gautier claims Tour du Finistère

Cyril Gautier of Europcar finally put an end to a three-year drought as he outsprinted Vacansoleil-DCM's Frederik Veuchelen in the rain-soaked Tour du Finistère. The 2010 Route Adélie was his last victory. Following his 2008 U23 European title, Gautier carried a lot of expectations, but evolved mostly into a domestique for Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland, a role he'll embrace again next week at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"I know how to work for the others," Gautier said. "It's been too long since I last won a race myself. I'm not a slacker. I always give everything to the team and I hurt myself in training, but when you get in a downward spiral, it's very difficult to get the confidence back. Since I came back from Malaysia in early March, I've been hit by different sicknesses: food poisoning, bronchitis, a cold last week, but on Wednesday at Paris-Camembert, I realized the good form was back, so I was motivated today."

Europcar was represented in the early breakaway by Perrig Quéméneur alongside Armindo Fonseca and Florian Guillou (Bretagne - Séché), Romain Hardy and Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil), Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Patrick Facchini (Androni), Yves Lampaert (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise), Sébastien Reichenbach and Patrick Schelling (IAM Cycling), Ignatas Konovalovas (MTN - Qhubeka), Julian Alaphilippe and Petr Vakoc (Etixx-Inhed).

As they got reined in when the race headed back south towards Quimper, a headwind was coupled with the rainy conditions, and another group went away with 40km to go with Anthony Geslin and Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ), Christophe Le Mével (Cofidis), Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen), Rémi Cusin (IAM), Florian Sénéchal (Etixx-Ihned), Veuchelen and Gautier.

"I've managed to remain calm for once," Gautier explained. "I waited for the last lap to attack and when I realized that Veuchelen was coming across, I slowed down and I positioned myself behind for the sprint that I launched with 250 metres to go. It was hard. But the bad weather conditions were the same for everyone. Unfortunately, we're used to it by now."

Gautier, being a Breton, scored his second pro win on home soil like the first one. "It's even better to win in Brittany," he said. "I'm proud of where I'm from. I expect more for myself in the future but I'll go to the Giro del Trentino now and I'll be a domestique again in one week for either Voeckler or Rolland at Liège-Bastogne-Liège."

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