A few hours before the WorldTour team, the riders from “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ also covered the course of Plouay on Sunday. However, they couldn’t have a real impact on the race since they missed the decisive breakaway that fought for the win. Within the peloton, Lewis Bower (18th) and Ronan Augé (20th) had to settle for a top-20 finish.
Unlike the peloton lining up at the Bretagne Classic, the riders gathered on Sunday morning for the Grand Prix de Plouay (1.2) had to stick to the finishing circuit. Sixteen laps of around twelve kilometres were to be covered, for a total distance of almost 190 km. “It was fast from the start, for forty-five minutes, and there was a big fight for the breakaway,” explained Alex Chouffe. “A first group of ten managed to get away and we were not represented. A chasing group formed behind, but we only had Titouan [Fontaine] in a group of thirty. When the peloton came back, another group of ten went and we missed it again.” This proved decisive for the rest of the day since the peloton never managed to catch the fugitives. Pierre-Henry Basset (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) took the victory and “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ remained stuck in the pack, which finished almost three minutes later.
“We didn’t tackle the race the right way”, Alex Chouffe
Lewis Bower took second place in the bunch sprint, which meant 18th of the race, and Ronan Augé finished two ranks behind the New Zealander. “We weren’t expecting this kind of result, we were hoping for a podium, and we were going for the win”, said Alex. “We didn’t manage to execute the plan we talked about in the morning briefing. We didn’t perform well because we lacked opportunism and teamwork. The riders were too conservative, and we didn’t tackle the race the right way. We expected too much from the other teams and we were always one step behind, chasing the breakaway. On a tough circuit like Plouay, if you take the race the wrong way, it’s hard to reverse the trend. We made efforts that we shouldn’t have made, and when we had to be there in the decisive moments, we didn’t have the strength anymore. It was a difficult day for us in terms of timing. It’s a bit frustrating, but we drew conclusions together. It reminds us that we have to be active and in the mix right from the start.”
It’s now time to look ahead. “We’re off to the Tour of Britain next week,” Alex concluded. “It’s a ProSeries event, a very high-level race and the boys will be able to rub shoulders with a very strong field.”
