Sagan starts prep for world championship title defense
Peter Sagan will race his first road event since the conclusion of the Tour de France. Bretagne-Classic Ouest France should suit the world champion.
Peter Sagan will race his first road event since the conclusion of the Tour de France. Bretagne-Classic Ouest France should suit the world champion.
Alexander Kristoff takes "a beautiful victory” at the Grand Prix Ouest France Plouay
Results from the 2014 GP Ouest France-Plouay
Sylvain Chavanel leads out a seven-man sprint and holds his advantage to the line to win the GP Ouest France-Plouay just inches ahead of the bunch
The Lampre rider has to come from a long way back, but hits the line first to take his third victory of the season
Results from the 2013 GP Ouest France-Plouay
The HTC-Columbia rider out-speeds Garmin's Tyler Farrar to win the ProTour race.
After a relatively quiet week last week, things are cracking this week across Europe.
As we drove to the course, the small team camper bounced and creaked as it followed the motorcade of team cars along the small sinuous roads through the rural Brittany countryside. We passed dozens of cyclists ranging in age from 12 to 70, dressed in a mosaic of pro team and club colors, who were also on their way to the circuit to watch us race in Plouay.
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will not race this weekend at the GP Ouest France-Plouay. According to Astana spokesman Philippe Maertens, Contador has come down with a cold and will not participate in what was expected to be his final major race of the 2009 season. “He has a cold. He has no voice. He was not on the bike for a week,” Maertens told VeloNews. “It would be useless for him to start.”
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) escaped to victory at the Grand Prix de Plouay on Sunday. Voeckler, a hero in France after valiantly and improbably holding on to the Tour de France's yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004 before losing it to Lance Armstrong, shot off from the pack with 2.5km to ride and held off the fast-finishing peloton to secure the win. Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) finished second with Italian Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas), the ProTour leader, in third. As he passed the red flag marking the final kilometer, Voeckler only had a few seconds' gap
George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) added another prize to his trophy cabinet on Sunday by sprinting to victory in the GP de Plouay, the 23rd race of the inaugural ProTour. The American outkicked Alexandre Usov (AG2R -Prevoyance) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) to win the 212km race around Plouay. Hincapie almost celebrated prematurely, raising his arms as Usov bore down upon him. But he managed to hang on to edge the AG2R rider. The win came in what has been a stellar year for Hincapie. He finished second in Paris-Roubaix, then won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne; collected two stages and
Leon van Bon (Lotto-Domo) won the fifth stage of the Tour of the Netherlands on Friday, a 221km stage from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Sittard, Netherlands. Van Bon soloed in for the victory in five hours, 10 minutes and 28 seconds. Marc Streel (Lanbouwkrediet-Colnago) was second at 1:06, with Manuel Quinziato (Lampre) third at 1:43. Viatcheslav Ekimov (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor), retains the overall lead going into Saturday’s finale, a 197km stage from Sittard-Geleen to Landgraaf. The silver medalist in the recently completed Olympic time trial bounced into the overall lead after winning
Andy Flickinger (AG2R) celebrated "the most beautiful day" of his cycling career, after sprinting to victory at the Grand Prix Plouay on Sunday. The 24-year-old Grenoble resident took a hard-fought win against Anthony Geslin (Brioches) and Nicolas Jalabert (CSC) at the end of the 198-kilometer race around Plouay. The day started out fast, with the field covering the first lap on a difficult14.4km circuit at nearly 45kph. Early on, a group of 40 riders managed to build a nearly two-minute lead on the field before being reeled in. Flickinger, however, timed his move correctly when he
Britain’s Nicole Cooke sprinted to victory Saturday in the Grand Prix de Plouay, the seventh round of the women’s World Cup. The high pace, nearly 40 km/h, saw to it that there were few attacks until just before midrace, when Jeannie Longo attacked and exploded the group. She was retrieved, however, and 2002 French champion Magali Floc’h took a shot, building a gap of four minutes with four laps to go. She, too, was eventually brought back, and Longo attacked once more, again without success. Then Juliette Vandekerckhove jumped away, and with two laps remaining she held a lead of 20 seconds
England’s Jeremy Hunt sprinted to the biggest win of his career Sundayin the GP de Plouay, charging to the head of a field dominated by riders from English-speaking countries in the French race deep in the heart of Brittany. Hunt, 28, edged Australians Stuart O’Grady (Credit Agricole) and BadenCooke (FDJeux.com) in a bunch sprint in front of a raucous crowd undersunny summer skies. American Fred Rodriguez (Domo) finished fifth in one of France’s mostimportant one-day races on the calendar. “I stayed in the pack all day hoping it would come down to a sprint,”Hunt told French television. “I
Some of my friends and family at home seemed to think that the French WorldCup took place in a village called "Poulet" today. Pouletmeans chicken, and no, we really weren’t racing in a town called “chicken.”The race took place in the village of Plouay. I’m not sure if Plouay canbe translated into anything English, but I know it doesn’t mean chicken.Our five-woman Saturn squad came into this race motivated and excited.You just couldn’t tell by looking at us. We were all still quite worn outfrom La Grande Boucle. Ina had been telling me all week that I looked likehell. Hey thanks, Ina!I spent
Sunday’s eighth stage of the Tour de France was a long, hot day in thesaddle across France’s Brittany region and the peloton wanted to get itover with quickly. It was a stage that spelled the end for Mapei’s OscarFreire and Lotto’s Aart Vierhouten, both victims of Saturday’slate-race crashes did not start on Sunday. The group roared past huge crowds of fans celebrating France’s BastilleDay and covered nearly 100 kilometers in the first two hours. A seven–manbreakaway slipped away midway through the stage and became the second successfulbreak of the 89th Tour. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon ruined