The second round of the weekend in Brittany turned out to be very lively on Sunday. Up there in the various moves at first, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team unfortunately missed the decisive group, which went around fifty kilometres from the finish on the Boucles de l’Aulne. Sam Watson then fought for the remaining places and took thirteenth.
The day after the Tour du Finistère, the peloton was still in the same department on Sunday to complete several loops around Châteaulin. The Boucles de l’Aulne tallied more than 180 kilometers, and almost half were necessary to see the race finally settle. “It was an extremely eventful race, with a quite rare scenario,” explained Philippe Mauduit. “Groups of 20-30 riders would go out, would do 7-8 kilometres in front, would be caught, and it would start again just as soon. It was like this for a hundred kilometres. We always had two or three riders in the front group, then when the peloton split in two, we had Sven, Sam, Quentin and Rudy in the lead. It was pretty good. Then, this group of around forty split in two again, and we only had Sam and Sven in the front. Rudy was caught behind, but he made the effort to get out and they closed fifty seconds with Kilian Verschuren. We ended up with three riders in a group of 25-30. It was a good scenario until then.”
“We missed an opportunity”, Philippe Mauduit
Sixty-eight kilometres from the finish, the riders also entered the final circuit, to be covered eight times, and the action resumed. “It kept on attacking in front, and we were always represented,” said Philippe. “Then at one point, Sam made the effort to chase a group down, there was a counterattack, and we weren’t able to follow it. This is a bit of bad luck, especially for Sam, because he really had the legs to be there. For Rudy and Sven, they were at a point in the race where they needed to recover. Sven was in 2-3 breakaways before, and Rudy had just closed fifty seconds. They couldn’t have done more than what they did at that point. We missed an opportunity, everyone looked at each other, and we didn’t manage to get out of this situation. We tried to chase with Rudy and Sven, but because they had already put in so much effort, they exploded. On his own, Sam couldn’t do anything.” About fifty kilometres from the line, Alexandre Delettre, Axel Zingle, Mads Würtz Schmidt, Fredrik Dversnes, Valentin Ferron and Joel Nicolau therefore went clear and immediately worked together to keep the rest of the competition away.
Although he tried to follow a few moves, Sam Watson never saw the head of the race again. Axel Zingle won, and the Briton took thirteenth place four minutes later. “Because the race was so difficult on Saturday, we knew that no team would be able to control today, and that’s what happened,” concluded Philippe. “We knew that it would be an open race and that we would have to be brave until the decisive moment. We weren’t able to follow the last move, and it’s a bit of a shame because they had a perfect race up until then. It’s disappointing in terms of the pure result, obviously, but also considering how the riders committed for it. That being said, they had a strong race on Saturday, and again today. Sven was in good condition for a restart, Quentin suffered a bit more and Rudy confirmed his good comeback. The young riders experienced an extremely difficult weekend, but it will do them good to improve their form. I think we will be ready for the next races.”
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