Grand Prix de Plouay UCI 1.1

Another roller coaster weekend for the team racing in Europe at the Grand Prix de Plouay!

With warm-ups and presentations done and the support team in position, the race got underway in warm sunshine. 140+ km made up of 12 laps of an 11+ km circuit, which included a long finishing straight, a couple of punchy climbs and some super fast descents.

The race stayed together for the first few laps. Oscar was involved in a minor crash, but managed to chase back on. Then, unfortunately, Ed and Dylan were both involved in a high-speed 70km/h crash on the finishing straight, which took them both out of the race. Fortunately, nothing broken, but some nasty road rash and bruises!

With about 70km to go, a group of 7 riders, including Jack, broke away and worked well together to build a gap of over 30 seconds.

With just under 30km to go, they were joined by another small group, which included Mak. With around 17km to go, they were then joined by another small group, which included Oscar, forming the elite group that would contest the final lap. 

With around 10km to go, Oscar launched an attack on the climb, which slimmed the group down. He was closed down by an FDJ rider, then more attacks followed, during which Mak, undoubtedly a contender for the final sprint, unfortunately lost contact with the group. Heading into the final 2km, Jack countered a move and hit the front, leading under the flamme rouge.

In the final sprint, the boys gave it everything they could to come away with 8th place for Jack and 13th for Oscar. Fantastic work by all the boys, they raced aggressively and gave it everything to put themselves in a great position with the biggest representation of any team in the final stages of the race.