Last year, Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) won the Classic Loire Atlantique getting a way from a big breakaway a few kilometers from the finish. The rider who was then neo pro almost repeated this operation, this time however leaving the breakaway closer to the finish line, to win the Classic Loire Atlantique for the second year in row.

The summary of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2015

The first part of the race, which started just before noon in La Haye Fouassière, was a bit disturbed by some rain and right from the first lap, the peloton broke up in two. Despite an initial junction, the peloton split up again in the 3rd lap, before a small breakaway got away with Hugo Houle (AG2R La Mondiale), Kévin Reza (FDJ),Bryan Nauleau (Europcar) and Julien Duval (Equipe Cycliste de l'Armée de Terre). These four riders were joined by Julien Guay (Auber 93) and then taken back by a first part of the peloton to form a group of about fifteen riders and after 100 kilometers in the race their gap was 50 seconds.

In this group we also found last year's winner, Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), but also 3 riders of Team Europcar with, next to Bryan Nauleau, Angelo Tulik and Alexandre Pichot.

In the last 3 laps the breakaway saw it's gap going up, to almost 2 minutes. In the forelast lap, the Spanish team Murias Taldea gets at the head of the peloton in order to chase behind the breakaway.

In the last lap, Alexandre Pichot no longer managed to follow the pace of the breakaway and when the gap is around one minute, that was the sign for Alexis Gougeard to attack. Initially taken back by 9 remaining riders of today's breakaway, the rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team attacked again at a bit under 2 kilometers from the finish and he was never taken back by his former breakaway companions.

While the city of La Haye Fouassière would like to organise the French Championships on this same circuit in 2017, Alexis Gougeard seems to have taken a subscription on the victory here since this was thus his second time to win the Classic Loire Atlantique. Launching a new attack, he thus managed to prevent having to confront Marco Marcato (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) in the sprint since the Italian rider was his biggest threat in case of a bunch sprint finish. The Italian rider finally took the second place in the race.

The classifications of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2015

Here are the classifications of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2015:

Race classification

Here's the top 10 of the race:

1/ Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) - 4h27'24"
2/ Marco Marcato (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) - +0'03"
3/ Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)
4/ Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) - +0'08"
5/ Julien El Fares (Team Marseille 13-KTM) - +0'24"
6/ Maxime Renault (Auber 93)
7/ Timothy Dupont (Roubaix-Lille Métropole)
8/ Sébastien Delfosse (Wallonie-Bruxelles)
9/ Romain Combaud (Equipe Cycliste de l'Armée de Terre)
10/ Kévin Reza (FDJ)

Other classifications

Alexis Gougeard also wins the sprints classification, with the same number of points (5) as Maxime Renault (Auber 93) and Alexandre Pichot (Team Europcar) while Sébastien Delfosse (Wallonie-Bruxelles) wins the King of the Mountains classification by taking 9 points at the different crossings on top of the Côte de Saint-Fiacre.

The classification of the Coupe de France PMU 2015 after the Classic Loire Atlantique

Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) also takes the lead in the individual classification of the Coupe de France PMU 2015, of which you'll find the top below:

1/ Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) - 50 points
2/ Kenneth van Bilsen (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 35 points
3/ Maxime Renault (Auber 93) - 28 points
4/ Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 25 points
5/ Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) - 20 points

The video of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2015

Early next week you'll find a short summary video of the Classic Loire Atlantique 2015. In the mean time, please find below the video of the finish as published by the French National Cycling Ligue:

door Thomas Vergouwen
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