He seemed on his way to repeat his 2023 performance, but by a few hundred metres, Valentin Madouas was unable to complete his mission in the Bretagne Classic. On the attack with fifteen kilometres to go, the Frenchman spent a few minutes alone in the lead before being joined by three riders, with whom he held off the peloton until the flamme rouge. A reduced bunch sprint therefore concluded the day in Plouay on Sunday, and Romain Grégoire (19th) and Paul Penhoët (23rd) were unable to make their way into the top positions.
With more than 260 kilometres on the menu – neutral start non included -, a long day was in store for the peloton in the Bretagne Classic this Sunday. Yet, Lewis Askey took the lead in a five-rider breakaway from the start. “That was the goal, even if we were hoping for a larger group,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “There was a difficult sixty-kilometre portion at the halfway point, and you never know what might happen.” Lewis Askey and his break mates got a lead of up to four minutes over the pack, which quickly closed in on this series of climbs, with just over one hundred kilometers to go. The weather got quite bad for a bit, the breakaway was caught, and then some serious attacks enlivened the race for about ten minutes. No breakaway resulted in these moves, with the exception of Kasper Asgreen’s solo effort. “I expected the race to be harder,” said Valentin Madouas. “The pace was quite slow for almost the entire race.” “The course was harder on paper, but as always, it’s the riders who make the race,” said Benoît. “Plus, there was a headwind on our way to the finishing circuit, which slowed the race down, and there were still a lot of riders present.” Asgreen led the race for a while, before the tension increased in the peloton in the final hour of racing.
“Luck wasn’t on our side”, Valentin Madouas
Then a real fight for positioning took place before the first proper climb of the final, 28 kilometres from the finish. As expected, attacks occurred and Romain Grégoire followed the first ones. “We had Romain and Valentin to make a move in the final, and Paul in case of a sprint,” said Benoît. “In the final, I wanted to wait a bit,” added Valentin. “I knew it was going to go fast on the Marta climb, but I stayed pretty calm because it was quite obvious it would come back together. So I had to come out at the right time, and I think that’s what I did.” After following a group with twenty kilometres to go, the Breton took advantage of a slight pause in a small leading group, which also included Romain Grégoire, to break away solo. The Groupama-FDJ rider got a ten-second lead, which he maintained across the finish line with twelve kilometres to go. Three kilometres later, he was joined by Maxim Van Gils, Brandon McNulty, and Louis Barré. “I believed in it because I initially kept the peloton at a distance and I wasn’t going full gas,” said Valentin. “When those three came back, it was a bit of a setback, but I tried to play with them a bit. I’d already made a big effort on my own, so I wasn’t pulling too much.”
At the bottom of the final climb, five kilometers from the finish, the gap was almost thirty seconds on the peloton. However, the latter made a big push at that point. “At the top, I still believed in it,” said Valentin. “I saw that they were far away, even though we know that in the final of this race, it can come back very fast when there is a headwind.” “Valentin went away at the right time and he was with strong riders,” insisted Benoît. “Unfortunately, the headwind penalized him a lot.” After attacking each other in the final hills, the four leaders found themselves together again with three kilometres to go and still had a ten-second margin on the bunch a kilometre later. However, they started to look at each other, allowing the peloton to come back as they passed the flamme rouge. “When you get caught in the last kilometre, it’s for sure disappointing, but that’s part of the game,” Valentin said. “I think I did a good race, but luck wasn’t on our side today. Like it has been the case since the start of the season with the team, we’re missing that little something.”
So it was a sprint of around seventy men that concluded the day, and Romain Grégoire and Paul Penhoët were unable to make an impact. “Paul was a bit far back in the sprint and was blocked,” Benoît said. “It’s a shame because we deserved better. We’re poorly rewarded in terms of results considering the race we did.”
