He dreamed of it, and he achieved it. On home soil, Eliott Boulet hoped to take a victory this week in the Tour de Bretagne, and the 18-year-old delivered already in the third stage, this Sunday. In Plonéour-Lanvern, he even won a bunch sprint after 212 kilometres of racing, to everyone’s and his own surprise. He thus secured his first victory of the season, brought the second of the year to “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ, and climbed to third place overall.
The Tour de Bretagne started quite calmly for Jérôme Gannat’s young men. “We were a bit behind in the first two stages,” confessed the group’s sports director. “We must also say that the sprints are quite strange in Class 2. You have to fight a lot to be well positioned and not get boxed in, which sometimes leads to unpredictable sprints.” On the first day of racing, a three-man breakaway managed to stay away, with Lewis Bower taking 28th place, while Noah Hobbs, a former rider of “La Conti”, claimed stage two, with Eliott Boulet crossing the line in 29th position. “The scenario today was quite clear, and given that we weren’t favorites, we let the others do the work,” said Jérôme, about the third stage, 212 kilometres long between Loudéac and Plonéour-Lanvern. “We knew that the breakaway would go quite quickly, and that it was going to be a long day. We thought there would be some action on the finishing circuit, like yesterday, and the first goal was to join the moves and fight for the win.”
“I didn’t imagine winning a bunch sprint,” Eliott Boulet
Ultimately, the action wasn’t that intense in the final forty kilometres. The day’s breakaway was caught with eight kilometers to go, shortly after entering the final lap, and the peloton remained in control ahead of the expected bunch sprint. “I asked Lewis if I should lead him out, he told me he could manage on his own, so I thought I’d do my own thing,” said Eliott Boulet. “I managed to get into position, found the right space, and went for it.” The 18-year-old Breton came into the final straight with nobody on his way and immediately launched his sprint, nearly 200 metres from the line. After a sharp acceleration, he took the lead with 75 metres to go and never got overtaken, raising his arms ahead of a full peloton. “He opened from quite far back, on this false flat finish,” commented Jérôme. “It was a very beautiful, powerful sprint.” “It’s amazing,” celebrated Eliott. “I came to this Tour de Bretagne to win, but I imagined doing it alone, or in a small group, absolutely not in a bunch sprint! I knew I had a good sprint, but not that I could win against pure sprinters. They were all bigger than me!”Yet, his explosiveness did make the difference this Sunday, allowing him to open his prize list as a U23 rider, and in an international race. “The Tour de Bretagne was really one of my season’s goals, along with Paris-Roubaix,” he said. “I had a bit of bad luck in Roubaix. I finished seventh, but I thought I could do better, and I really wanted to make up for it here. Today was the longest stage of the week, and I thought it was going to be hard. Since the start of the season, I’ve always struggled beyond 170 kilometres. On top of that, I had a really bad day yesterday. I was on the verge of dropping in the climbs. So I’m really happy to win today, against such a big field. I had my eyes on the Plancoët stage, where I live, but my father told me: if you can win before then, do it. It’s huge, and I hope to get another result by the end of the week!” “It changes the dynamic a bit for the next few days,” concluded Jérôme. “We’re now third overall, so we’ll have a bit more responsibility. Everyone is worried about the breakaway that will make it all the way, but the finishing circuits are a little less hard than usual on this Tour de Bretagne. So there could still be some sprint finishes, and we’ll try to make a strategy around that.”
