Plouay’s weekend
Plouay is a small village with less than 6000 inhabitants located in the Brittany region of France. However, despite its size, this small locality becomes the epicenter of the cycling world during the upcoming weekend, as it hosts two major races: on Saturday, the Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée Ceratizit of the UCI Women’s WorldTour takes place, and on Sunday, it’s time for the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France, which is part of the men’s UCI WorldTour.
Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée Ceratizit: Route and Favorites
The women's race features a demanding route of 161 kilometers with 1908 meters of accumulated positive elevation, concentrated majorly in the second half of the distance. The final circuit, which the cyclists must complete twice, includes the climbs of Lezot (0.8 km at 5.3%) and Rostervel (1 km at 4.7%). The provisional start list is impressive, including several of the world's best cyclists: Lotte Kopecky (1200), Elisa Balsamo (1000), Marlen Reusser (1000), Elise Chabbey (1000), Liane Lippert (1000), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (1000), Silvia Persico (1000), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (1000), Mavi Garcia Cañellas (800), Grace Brown (800), Chloe Dygert (600), and Alison Jackson (800) are some of the main favorites.
Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France: Route and Favorites
The route of the men's race covers a monumental distance of 259 kilometers and is filled with short climbs from start to finish, totaling 3600 meters of climbing. This makes the race ideal for classics specialists such as the reigning World Champion, Mathieu Van Der Poel (800), who is the big favorite. The starting list that also includes notable cyclists like Mads Pedersen (12000), Christophe Laporte (1000), Jasper Philipsen (1200), Stefan Küng (800), Julian Alaphilippe (800), Brandon McNulty (800), Biniam Girmay (800), Jasper Stuyven (600), Alex Aranburu (600), Dylan Teuns (600), Valentin Madouas (600), Alberto Bettiol (400), Clément Champoussin (400), Benoît Cosnefroy (400), Tiesj Benoot (400), and Giacomo Nizzolo (400).
Photo: Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée Ceratizit