De Lie sprints to Bretagne Classic victory
Lotto's Arnaud De Lie has put his fraught start to the 2025 season well and truly behind him, this weekend adding the Bretagne Classic to recent Renewi Tour overall victory.
The dynamics of the French WorldTour one-day vary year on year, with solo winners almost as likely as a reduced sprint, and late-summer weather often playing a role. The elite men got away with significantly better conditions than the women 24 hours earlier, and perhaps because of that, the bunch that contested the finale was still unusually large.
That said, they nearly lost out to a strong quartet comprising former winner Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe), Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty) and McNulty (UAE Emirates XRG) who led into the final kilometre, but they were caught after failing to spread the work.
The numerous sprinters present still had teammates on hand despite the frantic run-in. Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) was first to launch hard and fast as the road lifted towards the line, but De Lie timed it perfectly to surge ahead of the Dutchman, who faded enough to let a fast-finishing Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) slip through to snatch second on the line.
[race_result id=22 stage_id=0 count=5 gc=0 year=2025]
