British champion escapes select group to win alone as last year’s podium is repeated
Emma Pooley (Cervélo TestTeam) won the Grand Prix Plouay for the second year in succession after attacking the rest of a very select group in the closing kilometres of the race. Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) won the sprint for second place over Emma Johansson (RedSun Cycling), for an exact repeat of last year’s podium, with Judith Arndt (HTC-Columbia) in fourth.
Once again the toughest World Cup came down to a battle between the strongest riders in the sport.
“Plouay and Brittany suit me really well,” said Pooley after the finish. “The first big victory of my career was in the Tour of Brittany and now I have realised a double at Plouay.
“I attacked twice on the last lap,” she continued. “Actually, I saved a little bit of energy compared to the other girls in the breakaway because I was in the group with a rider who has a good sprint and that’s not my strong point. I attacked on the Côte de Kerihuel, but Marianne Vos managed to follow me and wouldn’t work, so I decided to attack on the Ty Marrec.
“There I saw that I was fresher than the others and I could widen the gap,” she explained, “then I gave it everything to the finish line.
“Winning here again is great,” she added, “I love Plouay!”
The action began in the 114.6km race on the first of the six laps with an attack from 2008 runner-up Luise Keller (HTC-Columbia), Elena Berlato (TopGirls-Fassa Bortolo-Ghezzi), Lizzie Armitstead (Cervélo TestTeam) and Norwegian champion Lise Nöstwold (Hitec Products UCK). Although the foursome managed to stay ahead of the peloton for quite a while, it was not able to build much of a lead.
On lap three Keller, Berlato and Nöstwold were caught by the peloton; Armitstead persisted though, and was joined by compatriot and Cervélo TestTeam-mate Sharon Laws.
With only the Cervélo TestTeam duo out front the HTC-Columbia team began to increase the pace at the front of the peloton; Armitstead and Laws were caught before the end of the third lap.
Halfway through and the Break Royale forms
On the first climb of the fourth lap, the Côte de Kerihuel, with just under 55km to go, Arndt accelerated; the German succeeded in escaping the peloton, which was controlled by her HTC-Columbia team, and took Pooley, Vos and Johansson with her.
With the four riders’ teammates spoiling the peloton’s chase behind them the gap began to open up and with 50km to go it had reached 53 seconds.
With 44km to go on the last climb of the lap, the Ty Marrec, Natalia Boyarskaya (Fenixs) responded to an acceleration from Breton rider Edwige Pitel (Michela Fanini-Record-Rox); she was joined by Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia) with Pitel just managing to join them, and they rode away from the peloton.
With Stevens up the road HTC-Columbia were threatening to take the lead in the World Cup team standings, so Charlotte Becker (Cervélo TestTeam) managed to jump across; as the German champion joined the pursuers Pitel was dropped.
With 30km to go, the leading quartet led Becker, Stevens and Boyarskaya by 1’43”, and the peloton by 3’15”.
The chasing trio continued to pull away from the peloton but was making no progress in catching the four leaders. At the bell, marking the start of the final 19.1km lap, the gap stood at 2’01”, with the peloton at 4’35”.
With 17km to go Vos put in an experimental acceleration but the other three quickly pulled her back, but 5km later Pooley put in a much more serious acceleration and only the Dutchwoman was able to respond.
Arndt was chasing with Johansson on her wheel; the Swedish champion seemed unable to help, or was perhaps gambling on the fact that with Pooley up the road the team competition was disappearing from HTC-Columbia’s grasp. Gradually the German managed to claw her way back across and the quartet was back together once more.
With 8km to go Pooley attacked again, uncharacteristically on a descent this time, but the others marked her and refused to let her get away.
Pooley takes her final chance to escape the faster sprinters
On the final exposed drag of the Ty Marrec with just under 5km to go, Pooley attacked again and this time the British champion managed to get a gap. Arndt and Johansson were dropped immediately, while Vos tried to get across, but she couldn’t close the last few metres to Pooley’s back wheel and was forced to concede.
She quickly pulled out a lead of 22 seconds, which had risen to 30 seconds by the 3km to go mark. The other three, knowing that Pooley was on her way to victory, began to watch one another and the gap continued to grow to more than a minute as she passed under the flamme rouge with 1km to go.
Pooley entered the finishing straight alone, just as she had done last year, and took her second Plouay victory in two years; only her red, white and blue British champion’s jersey giving away the fact that this was a different race.
Arndt, Johansson and Vos approached the finish, still watching one another, and prepared to sprint for the rest of the podium places. Johansson jumped first and looked like she may have done enough; the Swedish champion had gone too early though and Vos managed to come past.
Stevens escaped the other two chasers to take fifth place, with Becker dropping Boyarskaya at the end to finish sixth.
Only Johansson had an anything like realistic chance of denying Vos the overall World Cup, so the Dutchwoman takes her second successive title. Like today’s race, the top three of the year-long competition is identical to last year’s.
Pooley’s victory also means that the Cervélo TestTeam increases its lead over HTC-Columbia in the team classification; the Dutch-registered team takes the competition for the second successive year.
Result GP Plouay
1. Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervélo TestTeam
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit @ 1’14”
3. Emma Johansson (Swe) RedSun Cycling Team
4. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Columbia
5. Evelyn Stevens (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 2’35”
6. Charlotte Becker (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam @ 3’33”
7. Natalia Boyarskaya (Rus) Fenixs-Petrogadgets @ 3’37”
8. Erinne Willock (Can) Canadian National Team @ 5’49”
9. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi-Pasta Zara
10. Rasa Leleivyte (Ltu) Safi-Pasta Zara @ 5’57”
Final World Cup standings
1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 270pts
2. Emma Johansson (Swe) RedSun Cycling 209
3. Kirsten Wild (Ned) Cervélo TestTeam 202
4. Charlotte Becker (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam 182
5. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Columbia 161
6. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 160
7. Grace Verbeke (Bel) Lotto Ladies Team 158
8. Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervélo TestTeam 157
9. Adrie Visser (Ned) HTC-Columbia 137
10. Nicole Cooke (GBr) Great Britain National Team 112
Final team standings
1. Cervélo TestTeam (Ned) 677pts
2. HTC-Columbia (Ger) 613
3. Nederland Bloeit (Ned) 488
4. RedSun Cycling Team (Bel) 273
5. Lotto Ladies Team (Bel) 200