With the change of dates of the four days of Dunkirk (which brought their name quite badly), displaced from May 14 to 18, 2025 (due to the 80th anniversary of Operation Dynamo and the liberation of the city during the Second World War), on the usual days of the Tour du Finistère and Boucles de l’Alne (the course), the classics of the region will this time succeed the calendar on this weekend may.
“It’s a test, a somewhat forced test, if you can say,” says Arnaud Platel, the director of the National Cycling League (LNC). “Everyone realized that it was necessary to help the four days. On the other hand, this also corresponds to the will of Xavier Jan (its president) to bring together the tests of the same geographic area. We will see what it will give, “he adds, without knowing if the formula” Tro Breizh “will be renewed in 2026.” For the future, nothing is forbidden. »»
2 What do the organizers think?
Everyone is happy … or almost. Old dream for some, a little eccentric hypothesis and unrealizable fantasy for others, this “holy week”, to use the name of the previous days The Tour of Flanders in Belgium, is generally well received by the organizers. And for good reason: their respective tests have never presented such posters.
Paradoxically, it is Marc Fayet, organizer of a Tour du Finistère who advances from Saturday to Friday and could therefore have considered himself injured in the case, which seems the most packaged by this rapprochement. “It is a great opportunity, it is quite exciting to upset our habits,” he confirms, far from being hostile to this weekday. “In the idea, I would already like us to go back on the same scheme next year. We have everything to win. ”
-“We hope that this change will remain an exception …”
Less than 30 kilometers from Quimper, the discourse is significantly different. On the Châteaulin side, framework of the Aulne loops, the transition from Sunday to Thursday holidays is far from unanimous. “We are doing with it, we were imposed on this …”, confirms Yannick Botrel, one of the workers’ ankles of the test. “We did not really have the choice, we accepted this date insofar as if we had refused, we would have been placed at the end of March or early April. On Sunday, it was fine for us, I hope that we will find him in 2026 ”, confirms the one who, with his volunteers, sometimes had to solve the quadrature of the circle to achieve his ends. “On May 8, it is both day of commemoration (from the 1945 victory) and market here and like supermarkets, with whom we negotiated for them to close a little earlier, are open, we do not have our usual team parking lot. Again, we hope that this change will remain an exception. »»
In Plumelec (Morbihan Grand Prix) and Lannilis (Tro Bro Leon), which preserves its race day, this new calendar does not really have an impact. Except one, maybe. “Unlike in recent years, I will not have time to go see neighbors’ races, I will be too busy,” says Jean-Paul Mellouët, the Druid of the Abers.
3 Why are Breton organizers asking questions?
Wait and see. In Quimper, where the Tour du Finistère will start and arrive, and Châteaulin, a high place of Breton bicycle, the Finistère organizers feed some questions, some legitimate apprehensions before this small revolution within a middle of the bicycle which generally does not like that. Marc Fayet, on purpose, evokes a “risk that we had to take”.
“Yes, there are unknowns …”
He continues: “Yes, there are unknowns. We do not know how the spectators who can be tempted to go on a weekend will react. We also know that a weekday, it will be necessary to take into account the circulation of school cars, it will be necessary to do differently. I am optimistic but it is only the day of the race that we will realize if it is viable or not, “adds the president of the Tour du Finistère, convinced that with the set presented (Mohoric at the start!), The bet is already on the way to be won.
“We faced constraints. As in the past, we have shown that we knew how to adapt to changes, ”explains Alain Le Gouill, his Châteaulinois counterpart, referring to the after criterium of the Aulne circuit. He also knows that the three -star poster of the loops is a golden guarantee. As for the Plumelec Grand Prix and Tro Bro Leon, where the change is not on the agenda, it rolls.
