While the Tro Bro Leon should still wait before launching its feminine counterpart, the point of the Raz Ladies Classic came to apply to resume the role. Thursday in Cape Sizun, for its third edition, the first at the professional level, the Breton race “with the atypical course, halfway between the Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix”, dixit the former French champion Jade Wiel (FDJ-Suez), has experienced part of its outcome in one of the eleven storming sectors of the course. Officially called “Ribinou” with the blessing of Jean-Paul Mellouët, the history of the Abers race.
“Ash, they hurt, it was nice”
Well helped by an omnipresent wind, it is in these paths, sometimes in climb, sometimes downhill, certainly never simple, that the peloton first fractured, before being permanently fragmented on the final circuit around Plouhinec (29).
And overall, the twelve kilometers not asphalted on the program – already on the program last year, precision obliges – pleased the pros who discovered the concept. “Before coming, I expected really easy gravel games. But they were real paths. They added a lot of technical and physical difficulty. I loved it, ”savor the cyclo-cross specialist Célia Gery (FDJ-Suez), fourth on the line at only 19 years old and necessarily comfortable on such a coating. “Aside, they hurt, it was nice,” smiled for her side the Malouine Célia Le Mouel (Ceratizit), best Breton of the day. In a bad day, the Costarmorican Elyne Roussel even mentioned a race “as hard as some Flanderian classics”.
-Winner of the event, the Spanish Paula Blasi (Uae Team Adq) also noted the requirement of Patrick’s finds, the “tracing chief” of the race. “If you didn’t have legs, it’s simple, you didn’t play in front. »»
Some falls to report
Far from the first places and honors of the podium, some more warm competitors, questioned after leaving the race, deplored the dangerousness of certain too stony and slippery passages, especially in the descending parts. The whole having provoked several falls and punctures, like the great favorite, the Italian Chiara consonni, heavily fell into the Ribin 9.
Aware of the perhaps too technical character of certain sectors, the Dauphine of the day, the British Lauren Dickson (Handsling Alba), nevertheless preferred positivating: “It is certain that it was necessary to be concentrated, but what was it fun! ».
