Arnaud de Lie won the Grand Prix du Morbihan on Saturday in a bunch sprint in Plumelec. Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) finished second in the uphill to the line in the Cadoudal coastal town. trailed by Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Pro Cycling) in third.
The 20-year-old De Lie continued his hot streak, earning a seventh podium this year, including a fourth victory.
“I was excellently surrounded by my teammates, which allowed me to tackle the climb well time after time. The rest of the team controlled the race in the peloton and blocked the attempts of other riders to break away during the local laps," said De Lie, noting the six finishing circuits were decisive.
"This really is a team effort. I was surrounded by my companions throughout the race, they controlled the race so that we could start the last climb in an excellent position. They did perfect work and I am very proud that I could reward this hard work with a victory."
Six riders attacked in the opening 15km of the 188.6km one-day race. The group of Paul Wright (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Milan Fretin (Team Flanders-Baloise), Antonio Puppio (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Jonathan Couanon (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) and the (Euskaltel-Euskadi) duo of Iker Ballarin and Enekoitz Azparren worked together for half of the race.
By the time the last of the break remained, Wright and Azparren the last to be caught, there was 47km to go and a regrouped peloton began to drop riders off the back.
Jasper de Buyst stretched out the peloton with his effort at the front with under 3km to go, four other teammates in tow. De Lie accelerated to the front and won by several bike lengths.
Results
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