As expected, Peter Sagan (Slovakia) claimed the first European Elite title on the circuit of Plumelec, France, that suited him to perfection. He outsprinted France’s Julian Alaphilippe and Spain's Dani Moreno atop the Cadoudal hill in a brilliant effort that will earn him a white and blue distinctive jersey next season if he doesn't win back-to-back world championships in Doha, Qatar, on October 16.
"Since it's the first time the European title is open to Elite riders, I'm very happy to be the winner," Sagan said. “It was a very fast race with a hard climb to finish, but it was a great course for me. There were two ways to win it: enter a breakaway or wait for the final sprint. I'm glad we chose the second option, and I thank the boys from Slovakia for helping me. This time we were a team of six, not three like usually at the world championship, so we were able to race as a team."
The race began with a long breakaway of four riders: Bert-Jan Lindeman (The Netherlands), Pirmin Lang (Switzerland), Andriy Bratashchuk (Ukraine) and Risto Raid (Estonia). They reached a maximum advantage of 11:40 after one third of racing on the 232.9km race.
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Chasing from Italy, France and Belgium reduced the gap to all the moves in the last hour of racing, which led to the much-awaited sprint finish. Sagan himself rode behind Moreno Moser (Italy), who tried his luck by himself with 10km to go after his compatriot Fabio Aru was part of the last breakaway group caught with one lap to go. Another Italian, Davide Vilella, was the last man to attack, but the top riders appeared in the last curve in front of a large crowd: Sagan, Alaphilippe, Moreno, Samuel Dumoulin (France) and Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic).
"Sagan is beatable," Alaphilippe said. "He's human but he's also an exceptional rider. I'm aware that I'm second behind the best cyclist of our generation. I can't be completely satisfied to come second, but I can't be disappointed with the silver medal today. We rode well as a team. We were very motivated by this European championship and we took our responsibilities."
His teammate Dumoulin took the risk of losing the lead in the French cup. He has only one point more than runner up Baptiste Planckaert ahead of the final at Tour de Vendée on October 2. But his conclusion after finishing fourth where he won the GP Plumelec this year was: "I've a magical day on the bike today."
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