A few hours before the Bretagne Classic, Groupama-FDJ’s “La Conti” took part in the Grand Prix de Plouay on Sunday, the race’s amateur format. Just like what happened among the “big boys”, the hilly course didn’t prevent a bunch sprint after 187 kilometres of racing. Blake Agnoletto (25th) and Eliott Boulet (30th), however, didn’t manage to find their way up the front in the finish.
“La Conti” and around twenty other teams set off on Sunday for the Grand Prix de Plouay on a course unchanged from the previous edition. The route included nearly 2,500 metres of elevation gain, which made for some successful attacks in the past few years. “The plan was to be aggressive, because we know that in the amateur race, the Grand Prix de Plouay is sometimes decided by attacks and counterattacks,” confirmed Jimmy Turgis, directing the French development team. “We wanted to be in the action, but like the two previous races of the weekend (juniors and women, editor’s note), we said that a small bunch finish was also possible. We always wanted to be one step ahead, in order to bring Blake or Eliott as best we could in the event of a sprint.” The race, however, proved to be more locked than usual on the roads of Brittany “The Polti VisitMalta team got caught out twice but controlled the whole day, just like what you see in a WorldTour race,” said Jimmy. “It sanitized the day’s race a bit, but that’s how it is.”
“The raw result is disappointing,” Jimmy Turgis
Although attacks were reported, they never really developed. “We were very active, especially at the start of the race with Baptiste, who made a lot of effort to not miss the right move,” Jimmy explained. “Eventually, a group of ten broke away without us after an hour and a half, but it wasn’t such a big deal. We were focusing on other big teams, who weren’t represented either. In the second part of the race, Titouan and Rémi gave a good helping hand to follow the attacks. There were quite a few in the final, but Polti VisitMalta controlled again, and it was a small peloton that came for the sprint.” Still among the thirty or so riders in contention for victory, Blake Agnoletto and Eliott Boulet couldn’t leave their mark in the sprint. “We lacked a bit of team strength in the final,” Jimmy confided. “Blake tried to follow a train, because he was a bit isolated, but he got pushed around. As for Eliott, he didn’t have the best legs, so he couldn’t position himself well enough to take advantage of his top speed.”
The two men therefore finished outside the top 20 in a race won by Giovanni Lonardi. “The raw result is disappointing, even if we should note the good performance of Baptiste, Titouan, Rémi, and Blake in particular,” Jimmy concluded. “You really have to be strong as a team in this kind of race, and unfortunately, we weren’t enough.”