Cholet Agglo Tour 2025

March 23, 2025 It's the third round of the Coupe de France, a series of races throughout the year that presents a series winner at the end of the season. Today's race is 205KM long around Cholet, just South East of Nantes. There are a number of small climbs, all less then 2.5KM long before they enter a finishing circuit for 6 laps with two short hills on each lap. The first is 400M at 5% and the second one comes immediately afterwards up the Montée du Rue Surcouf which is just 200M at 7.5% and tops out 3.5KM from the finish. There are 17 corners on each lap of the circuit, making the final 50KM more of a Kermesse than a road race. A light rain was coming down as the flag dropped. Six riders got away including Vojtěch Kmínek of Burgo-Burpellet BH, Iker Mintegi of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Anton Muller and Declan Irvine of Novo Nordisk, Manuel Peñalver of Polti-VisitMalta, and Simon Bak of BIKE AID and with 95KM to go, their lead was just 1 minute with Unibet-Tietema Rockets chasing behind. It was status-quo until 59KM to go when the peloton got active to get into position for the local circuits. The break got to the circuit at 55.5KM from the line with a dwindling gap of just 30 seconds. Rain was still pelting down and only Mintegi and Peñalver were left at the front as they crossed the finish line with 48KM to go, 23 seconds behind the break. The race was back together with 40KM to go and Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis counter attacked. The bunch strung out through the tight wet corners and gaps began to appear. It came back together but with 33KM to go, a crash on a left turn took down at least 10 riders including a Anthony Perez of Cofidis. A few hundred meters later, a CIC-U Nantes rider crashed halfway down the peloton which brought down even more riders. Emilien Jeannière of TotalEnergies crashed from third wheel at 25KM to go leaving Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet-Tietema Rockets and Benjamin Thomas off the front. Their gap extended to 20 seconds with 19.5KM to go but they were joined by Niklas Larsen of BHS-PL Beton Bornholm who managed to bridge up to the two leaders. Attacks continued and group of six got clear including Mirco Maestri of Polti-VisitMalta, Matyáš Kopecký of Novo Nordisk, Jordan Labrosse of Decathlon AG2R, Thomas Gachignard of TotalEnergies, Emmanuel Morin of Van Rysel Roubaix, and Paul Penhoët of Groupama-FDJ. They got within 10 seconds but when the three leaders had extended an extra 5 seconds by the time they heard the bell for one, 8KM lap to go. The chase was reeled back in by the peloton with 5KM to go but the three leaders still had 17 seconds with 4KM to go. Thomas tried to get away on the Montée du Rue Surcouf with 3.5KM remaining but it simply was not long enough to break the elastic. Kubiš and Thomas tightened their shoes as Larsen led through 1KM to go. Kubiš started his sprint first from third wheel, outside of 200M from the line. His quick snap got him over the top of Larsen and Thomas and he held his effort until both Thomas and Larsen had given in. Kubiš had enough distance to sit up and take in the moment. Thomas finished second with Larsen in third. The bunch came in just 8 seconds later led in by Kubiš's teammate Andreas Stokbro for fourth.