April 3, 2026
The French Cup continues in Brittany with the 30th edition of the La Route Adélie de Vitré. The course for this edition is the same as last year with five, 21 km laps North of Vitré before doing eight shorter 9 km laps. The parcours is constantly rolling with little 400-800 meter rises at 4% which wear down the energy reserves, particularly after 174 km of hard racing. The race usually ends in a bunch sprint but the final kilometers are technical and the finish comes after a 400 meter ramp, so the sprinters have to be sharp when they come to the line.
Highlighted Riders
Paul Penhoët, Emilien Jeannière, Matthew Fox, Milan Menten, Matys Grisel, Tord Gudmestad, Jenthe Biermans, Benjamin Thomas, Iúri Leitão, Clément Venturini, Giovanni Lonardi, Joppe Heremans, Daniel Årnes
Race Summary
The wind turbines were churning and rain was falling as the riders set out from Vitré. A group of four broke clear in the early kilometers that included Axel van der Tuuk of Euskatel-Euskadi, Javier Ibáñez of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Quinten De Graeve of Novo Nordisk, and Victor Jean of Elite Foundations. They had a maximum lead of around 3 minutes but with 80 km remaining the advantage had been trimmed to 1 minute 45 seconds under the pressure of Unibet Rose Rockets, Decathlon CMA CGM, TotalEnergies, and Groupama-FDJ United. The break arrived in Vitré, over the wet manhole covers and numerous cobbled cross-walks, and passed the Château de Vitré to start the first of the smaller local laps with 72 km to go.
TotalEnergies took over as sole pace makers in the bunch with the full team lined up on the front. The first attacks from the bunch came on the the Côte de la Chêsnelière with 58 km to go by Maël Guégan of CIC Pro Cycling. Guégan dangled in front for a few kilometers before being swept up as the bunch prepared for the downhill run back into Vitré for 6 laps to go. The increased speed and tension brought the gap down to 1 minute 20 seconds by the time they hit the line with 53 km to go.
With 5 laps remaining, it was looking like TotalEnergies was happy to slowly reel the break in. Cofidis and Lotto Intermarché wanted a slightly harder race however and started pulling the bunch along much quicker. By the top of the Côte de la Chêsnelière, the gap was down to 40 seconds. Cofidis let off the gas for a moment and a few attacks went but the first to get a gap was Alexander Konijn of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur. Through 4 laps to go, Konijn was 40 seconds behind the peloton but less than 10 ahead of the bunch that was strung out in single file due to counter attacks.
Konijn was swept up before the next time up Côte de la Chêsnelière but his teammate, Laurens Huys, swiftly countered and went up the road. Huys was brought back with 30 km to go as the bunch were swirling with different riders and teams hitting the front all the time. The group took a breath and slowed down which allowed the break to build a lead back up to over 1 minute. The next attacks came on the rise to the line for 3 laps to go. Nothing stuck but the gap tumbled to just 15 seconds in no time.
Through 2 laps to go, De Graeve had dropped from the break and the others weren't far from being caught themselves, just 18 seconds ahead of the bunch. Jean and van der Tuuk shed Ibáñez on the way out of town as the real action was happening behind. On the Côte de la Chêsnelière, Cofidis lit up the pace with Clément Izquierdo. The peloton was in single but no gaps formed and once again, the pace went out. Groupama-FDJ United and TotalEnergies were wise to the counter attacks that followed on the backside of the circuit and shut them all down.
Van der Tuuk dropped Jean to go alone with 12 km to go and hit the finish line still in the lead to start the final 9 km lap. The bunch, which was still almost entirely in tact, was 15 seconds behind. Gorka Sorarrain of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA got away through the finish line and was just 100 meters behind van der Tuuk by the bottom of the final time up Côte de la Chêsnelière. Cofidis organized a chase and made a big push into the gap. Sorarrain and van der Tuuk were caught over the top with 5.5 km to go and the peloton was still very large with at least 100 riders.
Lotto Intermarché went to the front with four riders at 2 km to go to stay in position but they were challenged by Decathlon CMA CGM as the road tipped down through 1 km to go. Izquierdo led through the final corner for Cofidis to start the uphill to the line with Iúri Leitão of Caja-Rural Seguros RGA in second position, Pierre Gautherat of Decathlon CMA CGM in third and Marc Brustenga of Equipo Kern Pharma and Clément Venturini of Unibet Rose Rockets in the mix as well. Izquierdo faded as Gautherat and Leitão pushed forward as the front runners. At 70 meters to go, the pair were even but Gautherat felt pressure on this right hip and moved across the road towards the barriers to block the move. Leitão couldn't keep pace with the Frenchman and started to drift backwards. Brustenga made a run late and pipped Leitão on the line but it wasn't enough to overtake Gautherat who came across the line first. After some deliberation by the UCI officials, it was deemed that Gautherat's move across the road was dangerous and he was relegated from first to 16th. The decision gave Brustenga the victory which moved Leitão into second and Louis Hardouin of Van Rysel Roubaix into third.