Bretagne Classic podium history | 2020 edition | 2022 edition | Race map & profile

Formerly named "GP Ouest-France Plouay".

Plouay - Plouay, 250.5 km.

Benoit Cosnefroy finsihes ahead of world champion Julian Alaphilippe. Photo: Getty Sport

Weather at the start/finish city of Plouay at 2:40 PM, local time: 22C (72F), cloudy, with the wind from the northeast at 24 km/hr (15 mph). No rain is forecast.

The race: Here's the report from second-place Julian Alaphilippe's Deceuninck-Quick Step team.

In just his third race since the Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe was again the main animator of the day, launching a powerful attack with more than 60 kilometers to go at the Bretagne Classic, on an uphill gravel sector, that sparked an important selection. Only three riders were capable to match the World Champion’s kick, one of them being teammate Mikkel Honoré, who put in an incredible load of work to help the newly-formed group carve out a 1:30 advantage inside the final 50 kilometers.

While behind Davide Ballerini and Mattia Cattaneo were keeping things together, bringing to heel every attempt to attack and reduce the advantage of Alaphilippe and his companions, those up the road were catching the last members of the breakaway. Shortly after, two strong attacks whittled down the front group to just three men: the rainbow jersey, his teammate and his countryman Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen).

Runner-up three days ago at Druivenkoers Overijse, Mikkel put himself deep in the pain cave, at first by making sure the gap wouldn’t dip below 20 seconds on the finishing circuit in Plouay, and then by making a monster effort to return to the front with two kilometers to go, after being initially distanced by an attack of Cosnefroy on the last hill.

The Dane led out under the flamme rouge, peeling off the front with 200 meters to go. Alaphilippe was well placed and gave everything in the sprint, going elbow to elbow with his opponent on the slightly uphill drag to the line, but despite his best efforts he couldn’t come around and concluded in second place, notching up his 11th podium in the rainbow jersey.

“We attacked from afar and split the race, as we wanted to race offensively and enjoy this beautiful race. We managed to hold off the chasers, but unfortunately, I began cramping in the closing kilometers and that cost me in the finale. Even without this, Benoit was the strongest today, so congratulations to him. I am satisfied with the result and especially with the shape I had in this race, it bodes well for the next appointments, especially as I want to have a beautiful end to the season. I also want to thank the whole team for their great work and Mikkel for his huge effort, he was amazing today and it was a pleasure to be on the podium with him”, said Julian, whose next race will be the Tour of Britain.

“We wanted to open up the race, and with 65 kilometers to go we took on that gravel climb and Julian and me went full gas and got away together with Consefroy with Pogacar, who later dropped out from the group. After catching the break, I committed myself to puling for Julian in the last lap for the sprint. We gave everything out there, but this is cycling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We had an amazingly strong team today and we can be proud of the way we rode”, added Mikkel after his second top 3 finish in a World Tour one-day race.

Complete results:

250.5 kilometers raced at an average speed of 41.758 km/hr

1	Benoit Cosnefroy	Ag2r-Citroën	5hr 59min 56sec
2	Julian Alaphilippe	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
3	Mikkel Honore	Deceuninck-Quick Step	@ 3sec
4	Ethan Hayter	INEOS Grenadiers	0:13
5	Connor Swift	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
6	Franck Bonnamour	B&B Hotels	s.t.
7	Jasper Stuyven	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
8	Valentin Madouas	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
9	Quentin Pacher	B&B Hotels	0:16
10	Giacomo Nizzolo	Qhubeka-NextHash	0:17
11	Hugo Hofstetter	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
12	Davide Ballerini	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
13	Giovanni Aleotti	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
14	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Ag2r-Citroën	s.t.
15	Julien Simon	TotalEnergies	s.t.
16	Dorian Godon	Ag2r-Citroën	s.t.
17	Laurent Pichon	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
18	Gonzalo Serrano	Movistar	s.t.
19	Ben Hermans	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
20	Warren Barguil	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
21	Maxime Chevalier	B&B Hotels	s.t.
22	Michael Valgren	EF Education-Nippo	s.t.
23	Stephen Williams	Bahrain Victorious	s.t.
24	Mathieu Burgaudeau	TotalEnergies	s.t.
25	Tanel Kangert	Team BikeExchange	s.t.
26	Jai Hindley	Team DSM	s.t.
27	Mattia Cattaneo	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
28	Thibault Ferasse	B&B Hotels	s.t.
29	Carlos Barbero	Qhubeka-NextHash	0:22
30	Andrea Vendrame	Ag2r-Citroën	0:53
31	Edvald Boasson-Hagen	TotalEnergies	s.t.
32	Julien Trarieux	Delko	s.t.
33	Omer Goldstein	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
34	Diego Ulissi	UAE Team Emirates	s.t.
35	Pierre-Luc Perichon	Cofidis	s.t.
36	Patrick Konrad	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
37	Romain Hardy	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
38	Jonas Gregaard	Astana-Premier Tech	s.t.
39	Abner Gonzalez	Movistar	s.t.
40	Daniel Martin	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
41	Mattias Jensen	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
42	Mark Donovan	Team DSM	s.t.
43	Lawrence Warbasse	Ag2r-Citroën	s.t.
44	Sergio Higuita	EF Education-Nippo	s.t.
45	Juan Lopez-Cozar	Burgos-BH	1:09
46	Elie Gesbert	Arkéa-Samsic	1:47
47	Pascal Eenkhoorn	Jumbo-Visma	2:03
48	David Gaudu	Groupama-FDJ	2:25
49	Luke Rowe	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
50	Jose Diaz	Delko	2:58
51	Simon Geschke	Cofidis	3:45
52	Alessandro de Marchi	Israel Start-Up Nation	4:27
53	Simon Clarke	Qhubeka-NextHash	4:39
54	Evaldas Siskevicius	Delko	s.t.
55	Tim Declercq	Deceuninck-Quick Step	4:53
56	Baptiste Planckaert	Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert	s.t.
57	Kobe Goossens	Lotto Soudal	s.t.
58	Alessandro Fedeli	Delko	s.t.
59	Jonas Vingegaard	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
60	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates	6:30
61	Pieter Serry	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
62	Manuel Penalver	Burgos-BH	s.t.
63	Angel Fuentes	Burgos-BH	s.t.
64	Tsgabu Grmay	Team BikeExchange	s.t.
65	Sean Bennett	Qhubeka-NextHash	s.t.
66	Merhawi Kudus	Astana-Premier Tech	s.t.
67	Romain Seigle	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
68	Jeremy Bellicaud	Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert	s.t.
69	Alexandre Delettre	Delko	s.t.
70	Brent Bookwalter	Team BikeExchange	s.t.
71	Mauro Schmid	Qhubeka-NextHash	s.t.
72	Simon Guglielmi	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
73	David Dekker	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
74	Julien Bernard	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
75	Nils Eekhoff	Team DSM	s.t.
76	Kevin Ledanois	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
77	Andreas Leknessund	Team DSM	s.t.
78	Delio Fernandez	Delko	10:43
79	Owain Doull	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
80	Ben Swift	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
81	Juan Ayuso	UAE Team Emirates	s.t.
82	Romain Combaud	Team DSM	s.t.
83	Gabriel Cullaigh	Movistar	s.t.
84	Thomas Champion	Cofidis	s.t.
85	Andrey Amador	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
86	Kevin Colleoni	Team BikeExchange	s.t.
87	Sergio Samitier	Movistar	13:04
88	Gijs Leemreize	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
89	Tomasz Marczynski	Lotto Soudal	s.t.
90	Filippo Conca	Lotto Soudal	s.t.
91	Isaac Cantón	Burgos-BH	s.t.
92	Niki Terpstra	TotalEnergies	s.t.
93	Niklas Eg	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
94	Mario Aparicio	Burgos-BH	s.t.
95	Felix Gall	Team DSM	s.t.
96	Benjamin Perry	Astana-Premier Tech	s.t.

Course map & profile:

Course map

Course profile