This afternoon the Classic Loire Atlantique took place on a 16.8 kilometer long circuit which was repeated 11 times (see the Classic Loire Atlantique race route on Google Maps). From a group of 3 riders, the Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) finally turned out to be the winner by crossing the finish line alone, a few seconds ahead of the two other riders.

Usually you find here a complete summary of the race, but today was a bit special for me and didn't really turned out to be as I expected. Nothing bad however ... no, I was able to follow the race on a motor bike thanks to the organisation and the MASC (Moto Assistance Sécurité Course) association.

After a few laps, a first leading group was formed by Julien Fouchard (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne), Evaldas Siskevicius (Vélo Club La Pomme Marseille), Rony Martias (Saur-Sojasun), Julien Berard (AG2R La Mondiale), Bert Scheirlinx (Landbouwkrediet), Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Jonathan Thiré (BigMat Auber 93), Julian Guay (Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Guillaume Blot (Bretagne-Schuller).

Progressively however, the peloton came back on these 9 riders and stayed together for a few kilometers before Thomas Degand (Veranda's Willems-Accent) and Guillaume Levarlet (Saur-Sojasun) manage to get away from the peloton. Damien Monier (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne), Geert Verheyen (Landbouwkrediet) and Nicolas Bazin (BigMat-Auber 93) join these two riders and the 5 riders together manage to increase their gap on the peloton to over 6 minutes.

With such a big gap it seemed for a while that this leading group would hold on until the finish, but the peloton finally decided to start the pursuit and just before they were taken back, Guillaume Levarlet decided to launch a solo attack.

This attack didn't however turn out to be successful since the whole peloton got back together a few kilometers further. Quickly afterwards, Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet), Anthony Geslin (FDJ), Jean Marc Marino (Saur-Sojasun) and Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) start a new leading group and from this leading group, the Dutch rider of the Vacansoleil team finally continues on to victory.

Finishing in a group of three riders, he attacked a few hunderds of meters before the finish line to take a solo victory, two seconds ahead of Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet) and 9 seconds ahead of the French rider Yohan Cauquil of the Velo Club La Pomme Marseille who finished 3rd.

>> Check out the (first) photos of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2011 (more to follow)

The classification of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2011

The top 10 of this 12th edition of the Classic Loire Atlantique is as follows:

1/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
2/ Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet) - +0'02"
3/ Yohan Cauquil (Vélo Club La Pomme Marseille) - +0'09"
4/ Toms Skujins (Vélo Club La Pomme Marselle) - +0'16":
5/ Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'22"
6/ Anthony Geslin (FDJ)
7/ Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet)
8/ Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun)
9/ Arnoud van Groen (Veranda's Willems-Accent)
10/ Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Classic Loire Atlantique

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