Last World Tour one-day race of the summer will celebrate this year its 80th edition.
Starting and finishing in the town of Plouay, the location of the 2000 Road World Championships, the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France will take the riders over a redesigned and less predictable course, consisting of several relentless climbs – with a maximum gradient of 10% – suited to attackers and puncheurs. Roughly 250 kilometers long, the French race can easily follow a script with many intriguing and spectacular twists, with the presence of the Côte de Ty-Marrec set to stir things up and be used as launch pad to victory by those keen to avoid a bunch gallop.
Etixx – Quick-Step – the most successful team of the 2016 season, with 44 victories (out of which 15 came in the World Tour) in the bag so far – won't be short of options for the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France, where it will line out an 8-man team led from the car by sport director Tom Steels.
Tom Boonen, Iljo Keisse, Nikolas Maes, Davide Martinelli, Matteo Trentin and Stijn Vandenbergh are returning to action this week after racing the Cyclassics Hamburg last Sunday, while Julien Vermote and Lukasz Wisniowski will join them after completing another testing one-day race, Grote Prijs Jef Scherens.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
