April 9, 2026
At nearly 200 km, the stage from Avrillé to Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes is the longest and hardest of the week. The first 145 km are in a predominantly Northerly direction with four short climbs on the way between 1-3 km at 3-6%. The bunch will arrive at the finish line for the first of four passages and three laps of a 17 km circuit. On each lap there is the 1 km, 5% ramp which takes the riders up to the finish line in Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes, the 800 meter, 6.5% Côte de la Fousillere, and a 300 meter kicker at over 7%. Each of the three climbs stack on one another and after the 300 meter rise, the road drops off for a quick descent that leads back to the finish line. To spur on aggressive racing even further, the organizers have added three bonus sprints, one at 55, 17, and 11 km to go to make for a great parcours that should clarify the GC.
Race Summary
The crowds were out to cheer on the riders as they set off from Avrillé under Summer-like conditions. When the flag dropped, attacks started and six riders managed to get up the road including Ellande Larronde of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Maël Guégan and Similien Hamon of CIC Pro Cycling, Baptiste Gillet of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur, Kévin Avoine of Van Rysel Roubaix, and Morné Van Niekerk of St Michel Preference Home Auber 93. The group got to over 4 minutes but with 64 km to go, Groupama-FDJ United had pulled them to a much more comfortable 1 minute 10 seconds.
It's taken a few days, but with 60 km to go, we started to finally see the famous, immaculately kept Châteaux that dot the countryside all throughout La Loire. When the break arrived at the finish line just under 51 km to go, they had lost Hamon from their ranks and were holding on to just 35 seconds of their advantage. In the bunch, two riders attacked and had a gap to the field as they climbed up through the line. The attackers were Tom Donnenwirth of Groupama-FDJ United and Pierre Gautherat of Decathlon CMA CGM and the pair were quickly across to the break with the exception of Van Niekerk who had attacked and gone solo up the road. Valentin Retailleau of TotalEnergies bridged up to the Gautherat group with 46 km to go to make a group of seven chasing Van Niekerk at 20 seconds with the NSN Cycling led peloton a further 11 seconds behind.
Van Niekerk was reeled in with 38.5 km to go by the Gautherat group which had built a lead to the peloton of 40 seconds. Uno-X Mobility and Pinarello Q36.5 got involved with the chase and by the time they crossed the finish line with 34 km to go, the gap was halved. The race was all back together 2 km later but counter attacks went immediately over the top of the Côte de la Fousillere, instigated by Mathis Le Berre of TotalEnergies. A group of ten pulled away including Lander Loockx of Unibet Rose Rockets, Tobias Svarre of Uno-X Mobility, Dion Smith of NSN Cycling, Mirco Maestri of Polti-VisitMalta, Walter Calzoni and Milan Vader of Pinarello Q36.5, Louis Rouland of Cofidis, and Donnenwirth and Avoine from earlier moves.
Between the lack of cohesion up front and the coordinated effort of NSN Cycling and Decathlon CMA CGM, the group was brought back with 22 km to go. Calzoni countered but everything was back together once again a few kilometers later as the bunch were winding up to go for the bonus second at the finish line. Corbin Strong of NSN Cycling took the sprint on the line ahead of Bryan Coquard of Cofidis, both of which started the day 20 seconds down in the GC
As with the previous two laps, attacks went on the Côte de la Fousillere. Antoine L'Hote of Decathlon CMA CGM went solo and built a lead of 15 seconds. A counter attack came and group of five formed with Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis, Alexander Kamp of Uno-X Mobility, Gorka Sorarrain of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Killian Théot of Van Rysel Roubaix, and Gabriele Bessega of Polti-VisitMalta. With 8 km to go, the chasers were 10 seconds behind L'Hote with the peloton drifting backwards at nearly 30 seconds. L'Hote was caught with 5 km remaining and they quickly got into a double paceline to keep their advantage.
The lead group went under the 1 km to go banner with 25 seconds on the peloton. Théot was the first attacker at 800 meters but it was too far to go and he did not fully commit. The group was looking at each until 300 meters when Sorarrain wound things up with Thomas, Bessega, Théot, Kamp, then L'Hote behind in that order. Kamp got a strong run on the outside of the last corner at 175 meters and was well clear of the rest as he crossed the line for the win. Bessega took second place with L'Hote sneaking in for third.
Since the GC was so tightly packed before the stage got underway, Kamp assumes the race lead courtesy of the bonus seconds on the line. He leads by 2 seconds to Bessega and 4 seconds to L'Hote in third with a punchy final day remaining.