Pozzato times sprint perfectly to triumph in GP Ouest France

Italian beats Nizzolo, Dumoulin and a number of fast sprinters

Italian Classic specialist Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) turned around an at-times frustrating season with a big sprint today, winning the GP Ouest France in Plouay and notching up important WorldTour points in the process.

The Lampre Merida rider was quickest out of a seventy-man group which sprinted for the win after a number of attackers were hauled back, including late moves by Astana’s Enrico Gasparotto and BMC Racing Team’s Greg Van Avermaet.

He timed his surge perfectly and hit the line ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack Leopard), Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale), Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol), Daniele Bennati (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team) and the rest of that group.

It was a good morale boost for both him and the Italian team as the world championships approaches.

“Today we raced like a really great team , and always in the front, careful not to leave numerous gaps open,” he said afterwards, adding that the other Lampre-Merida riders helped him back after he had to put his foot to the ground on more than one occasion due to crashes ahead of him.

Because of the headwind, he said that he left it late to hit the front, thus ensuring that he wasn’t slowed like other riders.

“It’s a very important victory for me,” said Pozzato, who previously finished fourth and sixth in the race.

“I’ve had a lot of problems this year with a virus. I never really could hit good form and it was difficult to understand why. Now the virus has gone, and I’m in good form for the end of the season.”

The worlds is on home soil for the Italian team and he hopes to perform there, but also acknowledges that the numerous climbs are not ideal for him. “This victory puts me on track for a great World Championships, even if the course doesn’t really suit me that well,” he said.

Nizzolo was the closest rider to him and said that losing the race was tough mentally. “Second is nice but first is better. When someone passes you so close to the finish, it sucks,” he said. “I felt really good today but because of the crash we missed some guys in the last lap, so that wasn’t good for us.

“In the last lap I tried to follow the attacks and found myself between the attackers and the bunch. I spent too much energy there, I believe. I waited for the field and we brought back the front group.”

He said that he launched his sprint early as he went too late last year and lost out as a result. He was seventh then. His team director Alain Gallopin added that because of the way things played out in the finale today, he had to surge off Hushovd’s wheel when he did, not being able to hold off any longer.

“It’s a tricky finish here and very easy to get boxed in,” said Nizzolo. “But at five or ten meters to go, Pozzato passed me. My performance was super today but the result is not so good. I mean, only winning counts.”

He clearly felt that if the sprint played out differently, he would have triumphed. “If you get beaten by someone who was clearly faster than you, you can live with it. This is a lot harder.”

Dumoulin was third and said he considered it was a good result in what he termed the second most important French one-day race [after Paris-Roubaix – ed.]. However he too had thoughts of what might have been.

“I’m a little bit disappointed by my sprint because victory was close. I’d prepared well for this event and I was in a very good shape,” he said.

“I have felt pretty good throughout the day and the team worked well and applied the instructions. I was in the way of Pozzato when I pulled out but he overtook me in last meters. It would have needed perfect timing to win today, but this third place rank is a great performance in this high level race.”

How it played out:

Early on in the World Tour event, four riders from French teams clipped away and managed to build up a massive lead of over sixteen minutes. Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Natnael Berhane (Europcar), Vegard Stake Laengen (Bretagne-Seche Environnement) and Sojasun’s Christophe Laborie worked hard to try to stay clear, but their advantage was slashed to less than three minutes by the start of the second-last lap.

They were then brought back before the bell, leading to a stream of new attacks. The first group to open a gap was that of Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano) and Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), but they were reeled in. Then, inside the last ten kilometres, the trio of Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) scurried clear and put some daylight between themselves and the bunch.

It wasn’t enough, however. They were caught on the climb of the Cote de Ty-Marrec and there several attacks were fired off. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) drew Argos Shimano’s John Degenkolb and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) away and these were then joined by six others, but the group never fired properly.

They were reeled in, as was a subsequent attack by Astana’s Enrico Gasparatto plus a second effort by Van Avermaet. That set things up for a big bunch finish, where Pozzato thundered in ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack Leopard), Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) and 67 others.

Former Tour de France winners Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck had quiet races. Contador was riding his first major event since the Tour de France and finished one minute ten seconds back in 83rd place. Schleck dropped out approximately halfway through, something which his team later explained as being due to a stomach problem.

GP Ouest France Plouay (WorldTour)

Adam Blythe (BMC Racing Team)
Alex Dowsett (Movistar Team)
Alexander Kristoff (Katusha)
Andrea Palini (Lampre-Merida)
Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Movistar Team)
Andy Schleck (RadioShack Leopard)
Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Seche Environnement)
Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr)
Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ.fr)
Bob Jungels (RadioShack Leopard)
Brian Bulgac (Lotto Belisol)
Christopher Juul Jensen (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)
Danny van Poppel (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana Pro Team)
Dominic Klemme (IAM Cycling)
Edwig Cammaerts (Cofidis, Solutions Credits)
Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel (Cofidis, Solutions Credits)
Geoffroy Lequatre (Bretagne-Seche Environnement)
Geraint Thomas (Sky Procycling)
Gert Dockx (Lotto Belisol)
Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun)
Jérôme Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)
Ji Cheng (Team Argos-Shimano)
Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun)
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Sky Procycling)
Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
Julien Simon (Sojasun)
Kristof Goddaert (IAM Cycling)
Laurent Didier (RadioShack Leopard)
Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)
Matthew Harley Goss (Orica-GreenEdge)
Maxime Monfort (RadioShack Leopard)
Mickael Delage (FDJ.fr)
Peter Kennaugh (Sky Procycling)
Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar)
Rémi Pauriol (Sojasun)
Reto Hollenstein (IAM Cycling)
Ricardo Garcia Ambroa (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
Robert Hunter (Garmin-Sharp)
Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida)
Romain Lemarchand (Cofidis, Solutions Credits)
Sander Cordeel (Lotto Belisol)
Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale)
Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin Pro Cycling Team)
Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team)
Yann Huguet (Team Argos-Shimano)
Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar)