Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France 2024

August 25, 2024 The Bretagne Classic offers a rare chance to race monument distance before the World Championships in about one month. The race covers 4200M of climbing over a mammoth 260KM route that stretches North to the top of Brittany and comes back South to finish in Plouay with a local lap before finishing on the Boulevard of Champions. Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Deceuninck went up the road with Chris Juul Jensen of Jayco AlUla. They had a maximum gap of 11 minutes but it was starting to be trimmed by Lidl-Trek. The speed picked up in the peloton with 87KM to go as UAE set the pace into the climbs that were coming more quickly. The gap to Dillier and Juul Jensen plummeted, down to just 1 minute with 76KM to go with the final catch being made at 59.5KM from the finish. Attacks were relentless from that point onwards. Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ was the first to get away but he went solo and was swept up with 15.5KM to go as they entered the finish circuit. Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Dstny was next to put in a big effort to get away and was joined by Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal Quickstep. Lidl-Trek and Decathlon AG2R did the work to pull them back to bring things back together once again with 13KM to go. Tiesj Benoot of Visma-Lease a Bike forced a group of 9 riders clear on the penultimate climb 5KM from the finish. It was Marc Hirschi of UAE that put the power down on the final climb with 3.5KM to go that made the difference. The remaining 8 riders were caught by the bunch shortly after. A few one-off attacks went but there was no concerted chase, allowing Hirschi's gap to expand. The speed ramped up as the road tipped down toward the line. Hirschi had the peloton barring down on him but he had just enough time to post up in celebration. Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep took the sprint for second, just 1 second behind Hirschi with Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility taking third place.