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2024 La Polynormande (1.1), France

44th edition: Sunday, August 11, 2024

La Polynormande historic results | 2023 edition | Start list

Avranches - St. Martin de Landelles, 168.9 km

French champion Paul Lapeira wins. Photo: LNC/M. Vaning

Plato's dialogue Apology is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the city of Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët, of which the finish town of St. Martin de Landelles is a part, at 1:45 PM, local time: 31C (87F), sunny, with the wind from the east at 23 km/hr (14 mph). No rain is forecast.

The race: Oliver Robinson (Novapor Speedbike) did not start.

Winner Paul Lapeira's Team Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale posted this:

Paul Lapeira: "I had cramps on the last lap, but I gave it my all. Brieuc Rolland attacked with 1.5 kilometers to go, and I immediately made an effort to catch him. In the last three hundred meters, I was alongside Pascal Eenkhoorn. I waited for him to turn around, then started my sprint to take the lead straight away, and it worked.

French champion Paul Lapeira. Marie Vaning photo

"It wasn't the plan to run like that, but I know that this is a race where the breakaway has a chance of going all the way. Today we had a good group at the front with some strong riders, so we were able to bend the peloton and quickly realized that we'd be in with a chance of winning. But we had to be strong because it was a tough day. It's incredible to win again in front of my home crowd after the French championship, this time with the Tricolor jersey on my shoulders."

The news
After his victory, Paul Lapeira moves up to second place in the overall French Cup standings, three points behind leader Benoît Cosnefroy. He also consolidates his first place in the youth rankings and pushes runner-up Lenny Martinez back to 53 points. Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale still leads the team rankings, 3 points ahead of Arkéa-B&B Hotels.

The number: 27
The number of victories achieved by the Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale team this season. It equals the record set in 2003, its best result since the early 2000s.

The opening ceremomies. Team Lotto Dstny is presented.

Here's team Groupama-FDJ. Marie Vaning photo

A group of riders on a climb. Photo: Marie Vaning

Complete results:

168.9 kilometers raced at an average speed of 42.929 km/hr

Start list with back numbers, August 10, 2024