Rejuvenated De Lie powers to victory in Bretagne Classic
The 89th edition of the Bretagne Classic concluded with a nail-biting finish in Plouay
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) sprinted to victory at the 2025 Bretagne Classic after an attritional day of racing in Plouay.
The Belgian was the fastest in the finish to the line, beating Emilien Jeanniere (TotalEnergies) in second, and Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) in third.
It was a game of cat and mouse inside the final few kilometres as a group of four riders who had attacked in the finale were caught with a kilometre remaining before a bunch sprint took place.
De Lie’s teammates had been put to work throughout the day to keep the breakaway in check and delivered the perfect finish coming past Kooij, continuing the fine form that saw him win the Renewi Tour.
This victory marks the 30th of De Lie's professional career, and the fourth of 2025 for the 23-year-old who is enjoying a rich vein of form.
"Yeah, it's always a difficult sprint here in Plouay, and the timing was perfect," said De Lie after the finish. "The plan was to ride smart and just follow the big moves on the climbs."
A five-man breakaway formed featuring Óscar Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Iker Mintegi and Andoni López de Abetxuko (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The breakaway was always kept on a leash with not much more than a 3-minute advantage.
Abetxuko was the first rider dropped from the breakaway with around 100km remaining, and his companions were swept up around 10km later with moves coming from the peloton, including Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), but nothing stuck.
Following this, the race calmed for a brief period with still over 85km to go, before the pace ramped up towards the next significant point in wet conditions.
Kasper Asgreen launched an attack with 76km remaining, with many riders trying to latch onto his wheel, but none proved successful, leaving the Dane to pursue a solo quest. Asgreen quickly grew his advantage to over one minute, and it continued to expand beyond 1:45 with 65km remaining. His advantage only began to stabilise and reduce through the work of Lotto.
The final 30km saw a flurry of attacks, but the most significant was when Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) went clear with 16km to go. Eventually, Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), Maxim van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) bridged across to the sole leader.
However, the quartet was caught with one kilometre remaining and the mass sprint ensued.
