March 30, 2025
The fourth round of the Coupe De France starts in Chinon for a trip around château country. The 197KM route is full of 500M to 1KM long climbs and will suit a punchy rider, but based on history, a sprinter usually takes the day. There are a few local laps around Chinon before the riders head North East, following La Loire, to take on the final climbs, the last of which comes 5.5KM from the finish line in Tours.
A break of three riders went up the road including Javier Ibáñez of Caja Rural Seguros RGA, Théo Delacroix of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93, and 19 year old Jasper Schoofs of the Soudal Quickstep Development Team. They had 2 minutes 40 seconds with 55KM to go. Most of the roads were quite narrow which made it difficult for anyone to move up with Cofidis, Tudor Pro Cycling, and Groupama-FDJ sitting on the front. blocking the road. The first real action came with 26KM to go when the race hit a 600M long cobbled segment. Tudor Pro Cycling led in at a very fast pace but the segment was not long enough to cause any damage. The gap to the break was steadily coming down, slightly quicker than the kilometers to ride, only 40 seconds with 22KM remaining.
Ibáñez had dropped away from the break, and as the gap got smaller to the peloton, Schoofs attacked Delacroix with 14.5KM to go. He would not be alone at the front for long though because Alexandre Delettre of TotalEnergies attacked from the bunch. A group of 8 formed including Schoofs but the cooperation fell apart and the race was all back together with 12KM to go. A number of counter attacks went but Uno-X Mobility covered every move to keep the race together for a sprint. Thibaud Gruel of Groupama-FDJ attacked on the final hill with 5.5KM to go and pulled out four others including Clément Venturini of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Stian Fredheim of Uno-X Mobility, Delettre, and a Decathlon AG2R rider. The move looked promising but Fredheim was a lead sinker to the group and they were caught with 2KM to go.
Tudor Pro Cycling, who had been controlling all day, disappeared and Uno-X Mobility took control for the lead out with 1,100M remaining with Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Cofidis fighting for their wheel. Uno-X Mobility led through the final corner and dropped Erlend Blikra off with 200M to go with Bryan Coquard of Cofidis right behind. Coquard looked like he might pop out of the slipstream with 100M to go but Blikra was too quick and Coquard had to settle for second place behind the Norwegian. Gerben Thijssen of Intermarché-Wanty was third which is a decent result but the team are still searching for their first win of the season.