Classic Grand Besançon Doubs 2025

April 18, 2025 The Coupe De France continues but changes form as we transition away from the flatter races in Northern France and the Loire Valley to the East to find mountains. It is a difficult route with over 2,500M of elevation across 168KM with the main obstacle being the Côte de la Malete which is 3.3KM at over 9%. The first time up the climb tops out at 49KM to go but they do not go up to the top. A road turns off the mountain for a 44KM loop before hitting the Côte de la Malete again, this time going an extra 600M, still at steep gradients, all the way up to Montfaucon. Four riders made the early break including Loe van Belle of Visma-Lease a Bike, Tom Portsmouth of Wagner-Bazin WB, Tillman Sarnowski of MYVELO, and Vinzent Dorn of BIKE AID but only van Belle and Portsmouth remained with 60KM to race and a lead of 2 minutes 20 seconds. TotalEnergies were chasing quite hard and, with the fight for position to the bottom of the first ascent of the Côte de la Malete, the break had just 90 seconds as the road tipped upward away from the Doubs River. St. Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 led the peloton on to the climb but it was Tom Donnenwirth of Groupama-FDJ that attacked first. The peloton were on him quickly but he persisted in keeping the pace high. The break was caught right on the GPM line at the top by Fabien Doubey of TotalEnergies and Louis Rouland of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Van Belle managed to latch on and the three descended together with two riders chasing of Théo Delacroix of St. Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 and Johannes Kulset of Uno-X Mobility and the peloton around 15 seconds behind by the bottom. The two chasers joined the front to make five leaders with 43KM to go. The bunch was ragged in the chase with no real organization which allowed the gap to grow to around 40 seconds. Groupama-FDJ missed out as did Decathlon AG2R but neither team wanted to commit enough resources to sit on the front and pull so they tried to shoot riders off in counter attacks. The bunch finally did settle and start a chase at 36KM to go with Groupama-FDJ, Equipo Kern Pharma, and Cofidis. Unibet-Tietema Rockets added a man to the chase and with 20KM to go, they were just 15 seconds behind. The race was all together with 15KM to go at the top of a short climb, one of the last small hills before a fast run down to the river for the start of the Côte de la Malete once again. Nearly a full peloton started the climb together with TotalEnergies leading the way. A group of around six riders separated themselves on the steepest section at 3KM to go when the grade reached over 10%. Guillaume Martin of Groupama-FDJ got away with Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies just behind. Martin continued out of the saddle with his hands on the drops. Jegat slid backwards as Martin built a nice lead of around 15 seconds with 2KM to go. Under the flamme rouge, Martin was still leading but Clément Berthet of Decathlon AG2R and José Manuel Díaz of Burgos-Burpellet BH were closing in. The chase did not have enough gas to bridge to Martin who blew a kiss as he crossed the line in victory. Manuel Díaz came in next with Berthet just behind to take the final podium spot.