Bad luck is definitely haunting Paul Penhoët in this start to the 2025 season. Ruled out of the sprint on the first stage of the Pays de la Loire Region Tour by a mechanical problem on Tuesday, the young sprinter from Groupama-FDJ was forced to abandon in stage 2 on Wednesday after a crash with about 40 kilometres to go. Tom Donnenwirth secured his position in the first group on the uphill finish in Beaupréau-en-Mauges.
Yvon Caër’s men set off with ambition on Wednesday for the second stage of the Pays de la Loire Region Tour, with a last kilometre at 4% looming at the finish. In a final that suited his qualities, Paul Penhoët hoped to take revenge for his misfortunes in La Baule the day before. After a quite calm start to the race, and a non-threatening four-man breakaway, things unfortunately went bad for the young French sprinter. Forty kilometres from the finish, as the peloton had just entered the Beaupréau-en-Mauges’ circuit, Paul Penhoët hit the tarmac and was only able to get back up after a few minutes. However, he was unable to resume the race. “He collided with a competitor on the handlebars and crashed heavily on his knees,” Yvon Caër explained. “It’s a series of unfortunate events for him. We all hoped that his luck would finally come, but today, we hit rock bottom… It’s a huge disappointment, and Paul was obviously very affected. I hope it’s nothing too serious and that he’ll be able to get back on his bike fairly quickly, but it can’t go on like this. His bad luck is almost shocking.”
“We’re disappointed, but not dejected”, Yvon Caër
As the young man was taken to the hospital, his teammates were down to five for the final of the stage, which turned out to be extremely active. “Paul’s withdrawal really disrupted us at first, then I asked Rémi and Tom to follow the moves,” Yvon added. “Unfortunately, one group went away without us on the last lap, then the peloton slowed down because the teams weren’t really organized anymore. When I saw there were 30 seconds with eight kilometres to go, I asked Rémi to sacrifice himself to make sure it would come back together. He closed a good part of the gap, then Tom made the effort on the final climb for Matt. Unfortunately, Matt realized during the sprint that he was running out of gas. It didn’t work out today, but we took responsibility and were the most prominent team in the final.” In the end, Victor Guernalec, a member of the late breakaway, won just ahead of the peloton, while Tom Donnenwirth crossed the line in 28th place. “Tom is still in the mix for the overall and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow,” concluded Yvon. “It’s a course that suits him. We’re extremely disappointed with how the day went, but we’re not dejected.”
