Van der Breggen solos to impressive Plouay win

Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) took out an impressive victory at the Grand Prix de Plouay, attacking with 12 kilometres remaining and holding off the chasing pack into the finish to take the win by 11 seconds.

Anna van der Breggen takes out a solo win at GP Plouay-Bretagne Source: Getty

The prestigious one-day race was animated by dynamic racing from the peloton, with surges up the climbs forcing selections and drawing out the big favourites into some dangerous looking moves. The presence of the big names nullified the longevity of the attacks until Laura Asencio (WNT-Rotor) launched a solo move. 

The Frenchwoman held a slim advantage as the race entered the final circuit of a testing course around Plouay. Van der Breggen launched her own attack over the Côte du Bois de Kerlucas pulling away from Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM), Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini), and Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), with the Australian frantically trying to catch her wheel.

Van der Breggen pulled away, increasing her advantage over the three chasers to 13 seconds with nine kilometres to go. As the chasers were absorbed by the peloton, the chase was on between the reigning world champion and the remnants of the peloton. 

Van der Breggen appeared to be aided by camera motorbikes that gave her cover from the wind when she was forging her advantage, with team directors of other squads complaining about the boost granted to the star Dutch rider.

Numerous attempts were made by a number of riders to bridge over to van der Breggen, but it proved too hard and in the end it was van der Breggen celebrating the win as Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) led the bunch sprint home ahead Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans) to fill out the podium. 

The climbs were following each other very quickly, making it a very hard race from the start,” said Van der Breggen. “We based our team tactics on that, trying to be in the front all the time to save as much energy as possible.

"The team was great today, keeping us in the front all the time. I felt good, and I like the first climb after the finish, so I tried something, and it worked out.

"My sprint is not the best one, so a solo is my biggest chance to win the race. And we had Amy (Pieters) in the group behind, so if it hadn’t worked out, she can still sprint. That’s a nice way of racing, knowing that there are more teammates who can win.”