Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) claimed his second stage win of the race on stage 4 and took the overall victory at the Région Pays de la Loire Tour after a thrilling fight on the punchy 174.9km route from Marolles-les-Braults to Le Mans.
The Dutchman celebrated over the line after he kicked away from Clément Venturini (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who took third, and narrowly held off a charge from Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in second.
Van den Berg benefitted from great work by teammate Ben Healy in the finale as the Irish champion kept the pace high, chased down a late attack from the pre-stage race leader Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and had enough to complete a leadout.
Van den Berg moved into the race leader’s yellow jersey at the last after starting the fourth stage just one second behind Costiou to claim both his sixth and seventh pro victories and first overall GC win.
The Dutchman actually moved into the virtual lead earlier in the day after taking three bonus seconds in Vivoin at one of the intermediate sprint points, but his stage win highlighted his versatility as much more than just a sprinter.
“I didn’t do it by myself, that’s for sure! This win is more a team victory than one of my own,” Van den Berg said on the team’s website.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before, how we pulled that off as a team.”
Van den Berg went on to credit the work done all day by Jardi van der Lee, Darren Rafferty and Lukas Nerurkar to both position him for the intermediate sprint and final few laps but highlighted Healy as the top supporter on the day.
“Everybody put in the same effort today and then Ben did a really incredible lead-out,” Van den Berg said. “I just did the sprint, that was the only thing I had to do.”
As the riders hit the punchy local lap around Le Mans for the first time, several attacks flew off the front with the likes of Sam Watson (Groupama-FDJ), Healy and Clément Alleno (Burgos-BH) involved.
EF tried to control the final 20km but after the bell rang for the final time with three riders still up the road, carnage broke out on the final ascent of the Côte de Gazonfier climbs with Alexandre Delettre (St Michel - Mavic - Auber93) and Venturini trying to attack away from the men in pink.
Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) countered over the top but he was quickly caught as Healy’s took control in the green, white and gold jersey.
Van den Berg stayed in Healy's wheel from 4.3km to go until the final 350 metres with a nine-man group set to play out the final. The key for the Dutchman was that fellow fast man Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and stage 3 winner Alberto Dainese (Tudor) both dropped in the frantic run for home leaving him as the clear fastest.
The 24-year-old continued his great 2024 season in France after taking his second Worldour win at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. His teammate Healy looks to be approaching his top form before heading back to the Ardennes Classics in the coming weeks where he took second at Amstel Gold and fourth at Liège-Bastogne-Lège in 2023.
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