Mischa Bredewold wins the Classic Lorient Agglomération-Trophée

Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx) was quickest to the line in Plouay at the end of a tough afternoon's ride in Brittany. The versatile Dutchwoman won the sprint from a 29-rider group, with Marta Lach (CERATIZIT-WNT) and Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) finishing second and third, respectively.

The Classic Lorient Agglomération-Trophée is the penultimate one-day race on the Women’s World Tour calendar and a big target for the end of the season. The 159km race is characterised by its lumpy final half with many small hills scattered in the finale.

The first half of the race was a calm affair with a group of three riders making the break with Susanne Andersen (Uno-X ), Karolina Kumiega (UAE Team ADQ) and Franziska Brausse (CERATIZIT-CNT). They managed to get a lead of around three minutes but the peloton behind controlled it with Lidl-Trek managing the pace for three-time winner Lizzie Deignan.

An attack from Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) saw the peloton up the pace and within 23 km from the finish, the break was caught. Anderson briefly tried to make a go of it on her own but the pace was too high behind.

With 9km to go Liane Lippert (Movistar) tried her luck with a powerful move and quickly got a 20 second gap. She was caught by the peloton, however, at 4km to go and a sprint to the finish was now inevitable. Bredewold was the fastest to the line, followed by Lach and Bertizzolo.

“I felt really good today, and we had a super-strong team today, so we were really in control, and then you don’t need to waste too much energy," admitted Bredewold. "The sprint is so chaotic and suits me really well. I just saw an opening, and then I had to go really early, so I'm completely dead, but I'm super happy to take the win today.”

"I really like this race, but there’s a lot of road furniture and twisting and turning. Of course, it's part of the race, but sometimes it was a bit dangerous because there was no protection for the road furniture, so it was a bit scary today. I crashed also, I dove into the gutter, luckily nothing serious, so we managed okay"