Top favourite Paul Magnier is taken away in an ambulance at of the Bretagne Classic; Alex Aranburu wins

On a busy day of cycling— which also featured a grueling mountain stage at the Vuelta a España and the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole—there was also a race in France. The Bretagne Classic is a 260-kilometer classic through Brittany, starting and finishing in Plouay.

The day’s breakaway group consisted of Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X), Sjoerd Bax (Pinarello-Q36.5), and Alexy Faure-Prost of Picnic PostNL. Alpecin-Premier Tech, Lotto-Intermarché, and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe controlled the peloton, after which Baptiste Veistroffer and Emil Herzog from the latter two teams made their move to the front.

Soudal Quick-Step decided to support Jasper Philipsen’s Alpecin-Premier Tech team in order to help Paul Magnier, but other teams wanted to outmaneuver the sprinters. For example, Visma | Lease a Bike launched an attack in the pre-final with Per Strand Hagenes, as did Liam Slock (Lotto), Quinten Hermans (Pinarello-Q36.5), and Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis. Slock and Hermans were thus still able to benefit from the efforts of Veistroffer and Bax.

With 50 kilometers to go, we were startled by a major crash in the peloton, which included top favorite Magnier among its victims. The Frenchman from Soudal Quick-Step got back on his bike after a moment’s hesitation, but his race was over. Magnier realized this himself: he dismounted and left the race in an ambulance.

Amid the chaos, the breakaway group pulled further ahead again. Their lead, which had been around 20 seconds, grew to a minute and a half. Decathlon CMA CGM and Groupama-FDJ did everything they could to close the gap, which they managed to do in the final 5 kilometers. A group of favorites broke away there on an uphill section.

Aranburu launched his attack one and a half kilometers from the finish line, which seemed like the right moment. Alexander Kamp (Uno-X) finished second.